Slightly Damned: Wind of Redemption and Rebirth
by Timeless Dreamer Neo
Summary: AU. She thought she had died. She thought she had gotten what she deserved, but someone disagreed. Now she will be given another chance. A chance at life... A chance for redemption... Has now become a full fic. Various elements from other series present. Should be in crossover section, but due to issues, will remain in the normal category.
1. Prologue

Slightly Damned: Wind of Redemption and Rebirth

"_I see. So it really did end up this way…_" I thought as I desperately struggled against the demon that held me back. "_So be it…_" was my last thoughts as I made my choice. I knew I wouldn't survive, but… as long as they… he… would live, then that would be enough for me.

Giving into my rage, I let loose the final ability of my kind as my mind went blank and I began tearing through the demons that stood in our way.

Perhaps a few moments passed, and for a moment, I felt my sanity return as I had both of them in my arms. "_The star… it must be because of the star!_" I thought before I quickly carried them both towards the light that led out of Hell, even though I knew I'd be dead shortly. As we got close to the light, I felt a sharp pain in my back, before that pain turned into a burning sensation more painful than anything I had ever experienced before. "_A holy arrow…_" I though fuzzily, just as we entered the light.

-break-

Cold. That was the first thought that came to mind as we landed in a place covered in cold white stuff, which I guessed was what the Medians referred to as 'snow', as next to me, Buwaro and Rhea laid unconscious. Feeling the last of my strength disappear, I laid there on my belly, knowing I was going to die. "_Buwaro… I'm so sorry…_" were my thoughts as I looked at my adoptive sibling's unconscious form. I had done it. I managed to get us out of Hell, and now… now they had a chance for something better than Hell.

"_I guess… I've finally gotten what I deserved…_" were my last thoughts as my life flashed before my eyes, yet even now I regretted. Regretted that the last thing I said to my father was that I hated him, even when he said that he loved us, and always would. Regretted that I blamed my brother for something he didn't do. Regretted… Regretted that I had let my own anger cloud me so much that I had spat at my father's last wish and left my brother to die. "_Heh… If they say Buwaro was a failure of a demon for feeling compassion… Then I'm a failure for feeling remorse…_" I mentally chuckled at the irony of my last moments before I closed my eyes for the last time.

-break-

Demons don't have an afterlife. At least, that's what everyone believes. Yet…why do I still feel like I exist. Opening my eyes, I saw myself in a white plane, completely devoid of color and in front of me, Buwaro sat, his head held down. Perhaps I was being allowed one last dream before I disappear from this world.

"I miss you…" he said sadly, and I couldn't help but smile gently.

"I know… Please don't cry," I said soothingly, just as I took notice of the small white creature he had in his arms. "What is that in your arms?" I asked curiously as I took a closer look.

"Huh? Oh, this is a bunny I found with Rhea," he said, giving me a better look.

"I see. She's very cute. You should take good care of her," I smiled as somehow I knew this bunny would help Buwaro, even if it was simply to cheer him up. It was at this point I decided that maybe this was more than a dream, and if it really was, then I had to tell him something important. "Listen Buwaro, this is very important. That necklace of mine… Always keep it close to you. It is very precious, and very powerful. Please don't forget," I told him as my vision started to fade.

"_I guess my time is up…_" I thought as my vision went black.

-break-

When my vision went black, I expected to simply disappear since my kind is not supposed to have an afterlife, yet to my surprise, that didn't happen. I still felt like I existed, and to my surprise, I could open my eyes. "_Where am I?_" was the first thought that crossed my mind, just as I realized that I was inside some kind of crystal pillar on top of what looked like a large white tower/pillar. At that realization, I suddenly panicked. Where was I? How did I get here? And what was going to happen to me? Those thoughts raced inside my head as I started banging my fist against the crystal in hopes of results, and to my surprise, it broke like fragile glass, causing me to tumble forward and hit the ground.

Groaning slightly, I shakily got up, my body feeling strangely weak as though I were a newborn. Remembering what had just happened, my hand immediately went to my back (specifically where I had been struck by the holy arrow), only to find undamaged skin (there was a hole on my clothes left over from where the arrow struck me) instead of a gaping wound or a horrible scar, much to my surprise.

"How...? How can I still be alive…?" I murmured to myself in disbelief. This… This shouldn't have been possible. I knew I was shot with a Holy Arrow, something that would ensure death to any demon, yet here I was. "Is…Is this just another dream? Something before I disappear?" I wondered. Yes, this had to be a dream. It was the only conclusion that could have possibly made sense, yet somehow I knew…maybe instinctively, that I was still alive, but that was…it should have been impossible. My thoughts were halted when I suddenly heard the sound of footsteps approaching me.

"So you're the new recruit?" came a voice. The voice seemed rather calm and somewhat indifferent, yet still seemed to hold an underlying felling of friendliness, and judging by the sound, came from a young man.

"Who's there?!" I demanded as my eyes started glowing and lightning started crackling around my right hand, which I pointed towards the source of the voice, only for me to nearly fall over as I still felt very weak for some reason.

"Hey, take it easy!" the voice said, worry now present in his voice as he stepped into view.

The first thought I had was that he was a Median, specifically a human, but he didn't look like any human I had ever seen. He had hair that was white as snow, which he kept in a rather wild, yet short style. His skin was darker in color then any Median I had ever seen when I was in Hell, as his skin was colored a deep bronze color. Strangest of all was his eyes, which were colored a deep amber color, yet were sharper in shape, much like the eyes of a Demon or a predator. He was dressed in a dark blue shirt with black long pants and a strange jacket over it. On top of his outfit, he wore a brown traveling cloak that had a hood on it, and his forehead was wrapped in bandages that were fashioned in such a way that they looked like a headband rather than bandages. The most noticeable thing I saw was his left arm. It looked like it was covered in some kind of black gauntlet that covered even his hand and had 5 claws where the fingers were supposed to go, making his arm look more like the arm of a skeleton/demon rather than the arm of a human.

"Easy there. Your body is still weak from being re-constructed. Here, let me help you," he said in a pleasant tone whilst offering me a hand, much to my surprise.

"What? Why would you-?" I asked in shock at his casual tone. My belief that this may have just been a dream was growing even more. Here was a Median, a human, who wasn't the least bit afraid, and was actually talking to me like it was no big deal.

"Why would I not help you? I see no reason why I shouldn't," he simply stated.

"But I'm a Demon. I thought Medians were afraid of us," I said as my confusion continued to grow. This person couldn't have possibly been serious. I knew how things were in Medius. Demons like myself were viewed as monsters that should either be feared or killed, yet this person…he acted like he didn't know (or maybe he didn't care) about any of that, as he continued to casually talk to me like he would any other person.

"That may be the case on your world, but here that means nothing. Besides, you're here, so that means you can't be all that bad even if you are a Demon. Now come on, last I checked the floor isn't that comfortable," he chuckled, as though he had heard that question a million times, whilst offering his hand again.

I gave him an incredulous look, before I eyed the limb cautiously and with a bit of suspicion. This man (was he even a man?) seemed far too friendly and trusting in my opinion. And what did he mean by "This world"? Even if you could technically consider Medius and the afterlife to be separate worlds, I knew this wasn't Hell, neither was it Heaven nor Medius. "Where am I? Why am I here? And what the hell did you mean by 'this world'? There is no such thing!" I asked cautiously. This person had to be insane, or at least not well in the head.

"Huh? You don't even know that?" he blinked. "Did you by any chance break out of the crystal, or did it break by itself?"

"That crystal? I broke out of it," I answered, seeing no reason to lie. I was surprised however, as his face gained a knowing look at my answer.

"That would explain a lot. Here, hold my hand and I'll explain," he said.

I looked at him suspiciously, but decided to listen to him as I grabbed the hand he had been offering, before he quickly pulled me up, showing a surprising amount of strength for a human. Still holding on to my hand, he undid the bandages on his head with his left hand (somehow not clawing himself in the process) to reveal what looked like a crown shaped mark on the left side of his head.

"This'll only take a moment," he said before lightly touching the mark with his left pointer finger, causing it to glow. Suddenly, I felt a rush of information enter my mind, causing me to let go of his hand and recoil, but by the time I did that, all the information he had intended for me to see had already entered my mind. At first I was incredulous at what I had just seen. Other worlds? An entire universe/multi-verse? This HAD to be a dream. There was no way it could have been anything else, yet something at the back of my mind kept telling me that this wasn't a dream, and that it was all real.

"_Why am I having these thoughts? This isn't how things are! This is…_" I thought, desperately trying to hold on to my quickly shattering perception of reality (or at least how I thought reality was supposed to be), just as one particular piece of information came to mind, which made my blood boil.

"Is that it? That's why I'm here? Why I was brought back to life? Just to be another of this 'Master's' puppets?!" I demanded as I grabbed him by the front of his cloak and hoisted him up into the air, my eyes glowing in rage as I looked him in the face. I was furious! I could deal with the idea that maybe this wasn't a dream, and that maybe I actually was in another world. But this…I am no one's puppet! I refuse to serve someone against my will! And admittedly, I was taking out that anger on the closest thing I could find. However, instead of being afraid, or even intimidated, his face remained perfectly neutral.

"That's…one way to look at it," he admitted. "But for me…I prefer the term Servant, since I'm sure you saw the part about us having our free will most of the time. Now then, would you kindly…put me down," he said, before grabbing my arm with the thing he had for a left arm and began squeezing.

I winced as I actually felt my arm crack slightly from the pressure he was putting on it and let go. "Guh! What the hell are you?!" I demanded in shock, as it should have been impossible for a human to overpower a Demon. Another thing I noticed was how cold that arm felt. Even if it was covered in a gauntlet, I should have felt something, but this…it felt as though it weren't even alive, completely devoid of any warmth or life! This…thing in front of me couldn't possibly be human!

"Oh, I'm human. Or at least I used to be human, but that's a story for another time. Either way, you can get as angry as you want, but it doesn't change anything. The Master chose you to become one of us, a Rebirth, and nothing can change that now. You can either keep being angry, which won't do you any good, or you can make the best out of this new life you have been given. Your choice," he stated his voice neutral as if he was saying that he didn't care what my answer was.

"Another…chance? Why? Why would I be given something like this? Someone like me…after everything I did…disappearing should be everything I deserve," I said uncertainly, as I unconsciously placed my hand against my chest, where my Sun Pendant used to be. It didn't make any sense to me. Why would I of all people be given another chance? I'm a demon from Hell. I told my Father who did so much for me that I hated him. I blamed my brother for something that he had nothing to do with, and left him to die. I even let my anger cloud me so much that I harmed him, when he was barely a year old. Not to mention all those horrible, unforgivable things I did in Hell. Yet…why? Why was I being given a chance? Someone as unforgivable as me…

"But you regretted it, didn't you?" he asked, causing me to look at him in surprise. "I can see it in your eyes. You've made some horrible mistakes, done some terrible things, and you regret that," he continued, before he began walking slowly in a circle around me. "Let me put it this way. Who in the world has never had regrets or made mistakes in life? No one, that's the answer. We've all made mistakes and have regrets. I myself have done things that I always wish I had not done. I even know some of our fellow Rebirths who have taken more lives than they can count in their lives, yet the Master still saw fit to turn them into Rebirths instead of leaving them to the damnation their actions had earned them. I'm sure you're wondering why," he said, to which I just silently nodded. I couldn't believe my ears. He was telling me that the reason why I was being given a second chance was BECAUSE I did all those things? That didn't make any sense. Why was I being rewarded for my mistakes that brought me nothing but guilt and shame? Did the Master find it amusing that I be rewarded for my shame? Was this all just some sick joke to him/her/it? Any further pondering was halted when Shun continued to talk.

"It's simple really. They regretted it. Some people kill only a few people, yet they couldn't care less about that. Some have ruined the lives of others solely in the name of their own gain and never batted an eye, nor felt guilty. Our fellow Rebirths, on the other hand, many of them did what had to be done, some not by choice, yet they all regretted it and were truly sorry for what they did. They didn't let the knowledge that 'it was for the greater good' keep their conscience clean, they truly wept and regretted everything they had done. I can tell that you are the same. I don't know what you've done in life that made you think that you deserved to disappear, but the fact remains that you acknowledged your mistake, regretted it, and I'll bet, tried to make up for it. Am I wrong?" he said, shocking me as to how easily he was reading me, so much so that all I could do was shake my head to confirm that he wasn't wrong. That was why? I regretted? I was sorry? Was I actually being given a second chance because I was sorry? This was just too good to be true. How could something as simple as regret earn me this chance? It just couldn't be true, yet somehow I felt…I knew that he wasn't lying to me.

"And there you have it. Even despite whatever you've done, the fact that you truly were sorry and truly regretted your actions, deemed you worthy of a chance at redemption in the Master's 'eyes'. Now it's your choice. Are you going to take advantage of the chance the Master has given you, or are you going to do nothing and really become a puppet since like all of us, you too will receive Orders when it is truly necessary?" he finished, leaving me stunned. "I'll let you mull it over for a bit. The way out is this way, so I'll be waiting for your answer. One more thing, it doesn't really matter if you believe me or not, since it's really up to you. The world is as you perceive it, and neither I nor even the Master have the right dictate otherwise," he said as he walked over the edge of the tower we were on, only for steps that looked like they were made out of stained glass to appear, forming a stair case before he disappeared from my sight.

I stood there for a while, thinking over what I had just heard. "_Another chance… Do I really deserve this?_" I thought uncertainly. "_Is this even real? How can everything I've seen be real? This is all just a dream…right?_" I thought, feeling more helpless and afraid than I had ever been. Everything I thought I knew had been turned over by this, and now… now I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to do as my mind kept going over and over about what just happened. The biggest thing that I had a hard time believing (so much so that I wondered if I was simply refusing to believe) was the fact that the reason why I was even here was BECAUSE I regretted my mistakes. The very thing that had tormented me for years.

"_But he IS right, though. Everyone does make mistakes, and even in Hell, I never actually enjoyed those awful things I did…_" I continued to think, as my mind drifted back to my life before this as I considered the offer I had before me. Even if I didn't agree, the fact remained that I had already been chosen as a Rebirth and that wasn't going to change, and even if I didn't want it, I already had no control over this anymore, so assuming this wasn't a dream, I wondered what I should do. "_Maybe… Maybe I should take this chance. Even if I don't deserve it, a second chance would be nice…_" I thought uncertainly before I followed the same path that man had taken, which led me to another pillar/tower, this one looking like it was made from more stained glass, along with an intricate design on the top which looked like some kind of picture, even if I couldn't make it out clearly as it was too big (I decided that I could fly over it another time). Along the way, I continued to wonder if I was making the right choice. Looking towards the center of the tower, I saw the man from earlier standing in front of a gate of some kind, which strangely enough, looked like it was just a door that seemed to lead to nowhere.

"So have you decided?" he asked without even turning around.

I looked down uncertainly, doubts still heavy in my mind. However, in the end I made my decision. "Yes. Even if I'm not certain if I really deserve this or not, I shouldn't waste this new life I was given," I nodded, and to my surprise, he had a smile on his face as he turned around.

"Good answer. Even when you are uncertain, sometimes it's best to just keep moving forward, since nothing will change if you do nothing," he nodded, before holding out his hand to me in a gesture I recognized as a handshake. "By the way, I don't believe I introduced myself. The name's Shun Hayami," Shun introduced himself, before he bowed slightly and said, "Might I have the pleasure of knowing the fair lady's name?" he said in a joking tone.

I nearly burst out laughing at that. Strange person or not, I had to admit he seemed to know how to make a joke, since I could tell he meant for that to be ironic, as I was quite sure that a Demon like myself was easily the farthest thing from 'fair lady', but I managed to keep it down as stifled giggles. "My name is Sakido," I answered simply.

"Alright then, Sakido, allow me to welcome you to the world that we, the Rebirths, live in and protect," Shun said as he opened the gate, bathing us both in a blinding light, and when the light subsided, I was left gaping at the sight before me. We were on what I recognized as an island, but unlike the islands in Hell that were made of rock and surrounded by lava, this island was covered in a mixture of some rock, white sand, many lush green trees, and surrounding the island was water of the clearest blue I had ever seen (which is not much considering the landscape of Hell). "_This…this can't be real…_" I thought as I stood there gaping. This was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. The water, the plants, the island itself. It couldn't have been real. Nothing could possibly be this beautiful. My thoughts were cut short again when I felt a sharp pinch on my arm, causing my head to snap towards the direction to see Shun pinching my arm.

"The look on your face said it all. Besides, I've been saying it from just now, this is all real. It isn't a dream, and besides, you can't feel pain in a dream," he said flatly, clearly a little annoyed that I still thought everything I was seeing was a dream. While I could understand the feeling, it didn't stop me from glaring at him with a look that clearly said 'do that again and you die'.

"Alright – alright, I get it already. I just thought I'd make sure you accepted that this is real before you piss off someone, considering most people wouldn't take too kindly to being considered not real," Shun explained, defending himself. "Besides, this place…The Destiny Islands. It's almost fitting…" Shun idly commented, as I turned towards him in confusion. "They say that this island earned its name from being a starting point in many stories of people who have achieved great destinies. Maybe us appearing here is a sign. A sign that maybe you aren't as beyond redemption as you think," he clarified, before continuing. "Well then, Sakido. If you'd like, I suppose I could show you the ropes for now. Think of me as your supervisor if you will," he said with a smile, and for some reason I found myself smiling back, as something about him made feel like I could trust him. Of course, I wasn't about to let my guard down around him, as I had no reason to fully trust him.

"I'd…like that," I said, as I did appreciate his offer, but just to make a point, I grabbed him by his shirt again and looked him in the eye. "Just don't get any ideas. You may have told me that what might have been the norm back where I came from doesn't apply here, but I'll have you know that I don't trust you, and just because I don't mind you showing me the ropes, doesn't mean I trust you. Understand?"

"Very much so. Couldn't understand it better if I tried," Shun laughed nervously, causing me to let him go.

"Good. Now then, lead the way. After all, you did say you were going to 'show me the ropes'," I chuckled slightly, earning a raised eyebrow from him, before he shrugged.

"Alright then, follow me," he said before walking towards the beach, before I followed him from behind. I didn't know what this new life...this second chance had in store for me, neither was I fully convinced that all this was real, but whatever happens next, I would be ready to embrace this new life.

Author's Note:

And done. This is just an idea I had in my head for a while ever since I read Chu's Slightly Damned webcomic. I got this idea since I couldn't help but feel sorry for Sakido and her ultimate fate in the comic. While I did find it appalling how she treated Buwaro when he was little, what really made me feel sympathetic towards her was the last message she wrote, and her interactions early in the comic. To me, Sakido truly regretted what she had done and had tried to atone for it, even when she felt that she could never truly make up for it, making her a very tragic character. This one-shot is really my own take on how things would have gone if the setting was in my fandom universe.

In my world, there exists a race known as the Rebirths, who are actually souls that have met a premature end, and were deemed worthy by a benevolent entity simply referred to as 'The Master' to gaining a second chance in life, and are revived as Rebirths. In order to become a Rebirth, the soul in question must fulfill certain prerequisites in order to be deemed worthy. The most common trait is having a noble, pure, or good heart/soul, which is why many Rebirths are heroic in personality as many died to protect that which they loved. Another possible prerequisite is reserved for Rebirths that committed heinous crimes or terrible acts in life (Sakido falls under this category). This type of Rebirth which are often considered 'Anti-Heroes' are deemed worthy of becoming Rebirths because of their regret and remorse. They genuinely regret and are sorry for their actions, with many of them having tried to make up for it in life, yet many died with that regret, which in itself earns them a chance at redemption in the 'eyes' of The Master. As such, many Rebirths look at this chance as a blessing and often try to take advantage of this chance to tie up loose ends, make peace with their loved ones, and in some cases, continue with their lives (provided they can find their home world, as Rebirths when they are first reborn, never appear in their home world, and instead must go on a journey to find their home worlds).

Despite that, like everything in life, there is a catch to being a Rebirth. First of all, The Master itself is an entity that is concerned with the survival of the entire universe (multiverses included), and as such requires the Rebirths to carry out its will, which often includes maintaining the delicate balance of Light and Darkness, or eliminating threats that could endanger the entire universe if left alone long enough (this makes Rebirths somewhat similar to the Counter Guardians of the Nasuverse). However, as The Master itself embodies the inherent goodness of the universe, it does not give orders to its Rebirths unless completely necessary, and it will only give orders to do the actions that will lead to the best possible outcome as a whole. Even then, unless the orders of elimination are absolutely necessary, The Master rarely issues orders to its Rebirth, as The Master also values the many lives that can potentially be lost (simply put, The Master possesses the logic to see when sacrifices are needed, yet is guided by the goodness of the universe and its desire for the happiness of its people).

In short, this one-shot can function as a few things. The first is essentially a 'fix fic' for Sakido's tragic death (If you are reading this, Chu, then I mean no offence to your story. I simply added my own twist to make a happier story). The second is a sort of fuel for the imagination as I have left Sakido's ultimate fate up in the air. And third, this fic may or may not become a full fic, and if it does, then it will become an AU to the canon story. Either way, enjoy.


	2. New Life, Glimpse of the New World

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the OCs

"Slightly Damned" – talking

"_Rebirth_" – thinking

-break-

(Opening theme 1, "Harukaze" by Scandal)

Chapter 1: New Life, Glimpse of the New World

Sakido quickly jumped and took to the sky, right as the spot she had just been standing on exploded. "_He wasn't kidding. Rebirths…even ones that were originally Humans are tougher than anything I've fought before. The only thing that's ever been this tough was Cerberus,_" she thought as she was forced to dodge in mid-air as several small pellets (bullets, she reminded herself) were shot at her.

"Not bad. Looks like you're getting the hang of your new body," Shun commented as he lowered the now smoking sub-machine gun which glowed before being replaced with a shot gun and took aim.

"Tch!" Sakido clicked her tongue as she soon found herself dodging the wider shots. Luckily for her, these shots were slower, as they couldn't be fired in the rapid-fire style that the machine gun could fire. A few seconds passed before the tell-tale interval happened, where Shun had to pause to reload his weapon (with more rubber bullets, as this was only practice), and Sakido was not about to let the chance pass.

Charging up lightning, she quickly shot a bolt of it at Shun who surprisingly, made no move to evade the attack. Instead, he simply raised his skeleton/Demon claw-like left arm, before strange lines (circuits) appeared over his arm, before a small barrier appeared and blocked the lightning.

"Good, good. You noticed a weak point in my preferred style and took advantage of it. As expected of a former elite warrior, you may be out of practice, but the instincts are still there," Shun playfully complimented, before his expression turned serious. "Too bad for you, I'm the same," he stated as his left arm started to glow again, before a ripple appeared in mid-air as he stuck his left arm through and pulled out what looked like a pair of rods now attached to the back of his arm, before pointing them at Sakido, as the rods sparked with electricity before firing a condensed ball of electricity at her (set to stun, not kill).

"_This is getting tiring. For someone who's only magic is switching his weapons, he's a LOT tougher than what I expected,_" Sakido thought as she continued to dodge the attacks. She had to admit, she had made a mistake in underestimating her opponent simply because he was human, as despite them both being Rebirths, Shun was clearly the stronger one of them both, not just because of his weapons, which he referred to as firearms, but he clearly had a lot more experience fighting as a Rebirth. Pushing that thought aside, she quickly shot another bolt of lightning at him when she saw what looked like an opening. Little did she know that this was exactly what Shun wanted, as in a flash, his shotgun was replaced with a flash bomb, which he threw at the lightning bolt whilst covering his eyes. What happened next was instantaneous. The bomb hit the lightning bolt, causing it to explode in a blinding flash of light. This in turn caused Sakido to cry out as she was blinded by the light, not to mention she had to keep her focus, lest she end up falling from the sky. The moment Shun heard her; another ripple appeared before he plunged his left arm through it and pulled out an odd looking weapon that was squarish in shape with four middle sized spheres attached to the edges. Quickly taking aim at the dazed wind demon, he fired it, revealing it to be a net gun.

Sakido had been busy trying to get her sight back as she rubbed her eyes. Unfortunately, by the time she had managed to get some semblance of it back, the first thing she saw was the net that was just a few inches away, before she quickly found herself ensnared in the net, which quickly began binding her as she frantically tried to stay in the air, but her wings were soon tangled in the net, causing her to plummet down and land in the water with a big splash.

"Looks like it's my win," Shun chuckled as he walked to the water's edge, before quickly pulling Sakido back on the sand. "Need a little help?" he playfully asked, only to earn a glare in response, at which he wisely decided to back off.

"I'll accept that you beat me, but…" Sakido began, before using another lightning spell to burn through the net, freeing herself. "I refuse to be treated as though I were helpless," she finished as she got back on her feet.

"Hai-hai. Sorry about that, I was just having a little fun," Shun apologized, knowing better than to push his luck when dealing with the wind demones.

Sakido just shot him an annoyed look as she checked her wings to make sure they were dry enough, before wordlessly taking to the sky. Sighing slightly in annoyance, she decided to just enjoy the breath taking view from the sky. "_Perhaps this is what 'he' saw in life,_" she thought as she admired the lush and exotic plant life that covered the island. She had always wanted to see what the world of the living looked like, and ever since Death had set her up with a pen-pal, those feelings had only grown. When she had been shot by that Holy Arrow, she thought that dream would remain so, yet now… "_I guess it's times like this why Shun says most Rebirths look towards this as a blessing,_" she thought with a smile, as she had to admit that even if she still didn't like the idea of being forced to follow orders from The Master (Shun had bluntly told her that if The Master ordered her (or any other Rebirth for that matter) to sit and bark like a dog, she'd do it without question, and trying to resist would only make the order stronger anyway), it was times like this that she almost didn't mind following a few orders that rarely came up anyway. After all, thanks to becoming a Rebirth, her dream could finally come true. Flying a little further, she made her way to a spot she had found the previous day, before landing. The spot she had found was a small hidden lagoon near the back of the island. In the lagoon, there was a decent sized patch of grass where a few flowers grew (which in itself was odd, considering that the lagoon was near the ocean), and a small pool with a waterfall, which gave the lagoon a very calming feel to it.

Lying back on the grass, she closed her eyes and thought back to the last few days. Whether it was for better or worse, she couldn't deny that her life had taken a turn for the strange. Just a few days ago, she had been killed, was brought back to life, and was now under the 'supervision' of one Shun Hayami, a fellow Rebirth who had originally been human.

Three days had passed since she had become a Rebirth, and up till now, Shun had mostly been training her to get used to her strengthened body (flight training to get used to her increased speed, weight training for her increased strength, and even some meditation to help her focus her magic which had also been strengthened (she had noticed that in the short time she was already as strong as she was while she was in Hell's army, and she estimated that with enough training, she'd even be able to match (and maybe even defeat) the Seraph class Angels from Heaven that she had heard about while in Hell's Army)). Thinking about her 'supervisor', she couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh. While he was nice enough (much nicer than the company she had in Hell, that's for sure), and while she did acknowledge Shun's experience as a Rebirth (he had apparently been a Rebirth for 2 years prior to meeting her) as well as his fighting skills, outside of a fight he seemed very much laid back, unserious, and a little too goofy for her taste (eerily reminding her of own brother at times, even though Shun was thankfully more sensible, and not to mention smarter, than Buwaro ever was). Her odd companion aside, she also had a hard time getting used to how different this world was to her own. To her, it seemed almost too perfect to be true, yet it was. In fact, just 2 days ago she had experienced something that served to drive in even further the reality that this was definitely NOT Medius.

**Flashback (Sakido's POV), 2 days ago…**

I smiled gently as I sat on the top of the large tree in the middle of the island (I had always been fond of high places) and enjoyed the feel of the cool breeze that blew through the island (something that I could never do in Hell). Truly, it was times like this that I was glad that this wasn't a dream as I continued to savor the peaceful and calming feel of this beautiful island. Reaching into my gown, I pulled out the Sun Pendant, or at least a copy of the Sun Pendant that my father had given me. Even now, I still had a hard time believing that I had it with me, though considering how I got it back…it was understandable.

It happened yesterday while Shun had been explaining the basics of being a Rebirth to me in greater detail. A Rebirth is basically a person (or rather soul) that meets a premature end (doesn't die peacefully/suffered an unnatural death), but had a certain quality that was deemed 'worthy' by the Master (Shun also explained that there are 2 types of Rebirths based on the qualities that made them worthy. The first, Hero type Rebirths, are Rebirths that were heroic in life, usually having noble qualities and usually died whilst protecting someone or in order to save lives. On the other hand, the second type, Anti-Hero type Rebirths, are Rebirths that have usually done heinous crimes in life, but regretted them and tried to make up for them, often getting killed in the process (I clearly knew which type of Rebirth I was)). Shun also explained that what happens was that the worthy soul would then be taken by the Master before that soul went to the afterlife (I couldn't help but wonder what that meant for me, since demons don't have an afterlife…at least that's what I thought, though I'm starting to doubt that too) and given a new and stronger body, which is marked by what he referred to as a Rebirth Mark, a crown shaped mark that appears somewhere on the bodies of Rebirths that serve to mark that person as a Rebirth, as well as allow the Master to issue orders to said Rebirth (in my case, I had discovered that my mark had appeared on my chest, over where my heart was). He then explained the duties of a Rebirth, which basically entailed maintaining the balance of the universe, most of the time by preventing or stopping factors that could ruin the balance between light and dark (somehow I had a feeling the great war in Medius didn't make the Rebirth's jobs any easier), which often meant fighting against (and many times killing) anyone (good or evil) who could endanger this was an inevitable reality in a Rebirth's life, which was why he refused to teach me how to leave the island (he explained that usually Rebirths have the knowledge of how to do a world jump (open a portal to another world) imprinted on their minds while they are reborn, but as the process was somewhat incomplete for me (he said it was because I broke out of the crystal myself), some knowledge was still missing from my mind) until I at least got used to my new body, hence why he wanted to start my training immediately.

Following this, he pulled out a strange weapon that looked to me like a small misshapen club, and to my surprise, told me that weapons like this were his weapons of choice. Initially I nearly laughed at the seemingly useless weapons, until Shun gave me a demonstration (he pointed the weapon at a target he set up, and pulled his finger back before the target suddenly exploded) which shut me up as he explained how his weapon (a gun, as he called it) worked by shooting out small pellets (bullets) that could easily blow a hole through a body (at this point I couldn't help but wonder how different the war back in Medius would have gone if either side had access to these…guns or firearms that Shun used). Shun even explained that the gun he was using (he called it a 'Thompson Contender') was one of his favorites before becoming a Rebirth, and was still one of his favorites even now. At this point, I asked him how he could have had that, as he had also told me that when a Rebirth is reborn, he/she usually only has the clothes on his/her back. At this, he seemed a little sheepish and admitted that he had forgotten to mention that while Rebirths ARE reborn with only the clothes on their backs, they are also allowed to gain (or rather, summon) exact replicas (down to the tiniest details) of items they held in life by simply thinking about them, be they needed for the Rebirth's powers, or simply sentimental (he even told me of a Rebirth that carried around a picture of his family all the time). Deciding to give it a try, I closed my eyes and imagined my pendant, just as my Rebirth mark glowed and a light appeared in my right hand. Opening it up, I found an exact replica of my Sun Pendant, though I knew that since this was a copy, it meant that my real pendant was probably with Buwaro now, as per my instructions to Rhea. Either way, I was happy to still have this precious piece (even if it wasn't technically the same one) of my old life with me.

Pulling my thoughts back to the present for a moment, I looked down and clutched the pendant, remembering some of my fonder memories as my mind slowly started drifting back to my old life, and I found myself wondering how Buwaro and Rhea were doing (I wasn't too worried about Rhea, since I could tell she knew how to take care of herself. Buwaro on the other hand…) and hoped that they were alright. I also idly wondered how Iratu was doing, as he should have already been in Medius by now, considering that he had been chosen to take part in the Ascension.

Concerning the Ascension, I was also curious (and somewhat apprehensive) as to why it was being done now. Back when I was part of Hell's army, I was aware of the ritual that would allow Demons to escape Hell and enter Medius. What worried me was the reason for doing so, as knowing my old affiliates, it couldn't be anything good. This thought also made me frown, as Shun had explained to me how a Rebirth's duty was to maintain the balance of the universe, and if the actions of Hell's army would somehow mess with that (assuming Heaven didn't do anything about it), it would mean that Rebirths like myself would be sent to push everything back into balance, and for some reason this had me feeling rather worried.

However, just as I was about to over think something that may or may not happen, my thoughts were interrupted when I suddenly heard the sound of laughter. The laughter of children to be precise. Poking out my head, I noticed a group of children playing on the beach below. I couldn't help but smile sadly at the sight, reminding me of happier times from my childhood.

"Hey, Sakido! Come over here, I'd like to introduce you!" came Shun's voice from below, as I just noticed that he had been playing with the children. It took me a moment to process what he just said (I thought I might have been hearing things), but once it sank in what he was asking, I looked at him like he was the biggest idiot in the world, even if I doubt he'd be able to see it.

"I'm not joking! Trust me, it'll be fine… And quit looking at me like that!" he said, causing me to blink in surprise. I guess he actually COULD see my expression. Shaking off the thought, I decided to humor him, even if just to shut him up. Besides, I could always give him a shock treatment later anyway! (I'm sure I had an evil and malicious look on my face at this point, if Shun suddenly looking a little paler was any indication)

Flying down and landing on the beach, I barely got a chance to properly land before I was surrounded by the children, all of them looking at me with wide eyes. The next few moments were…tense for some reason, and I was idly wondering if (read: when) the children ran away screaming (it wasn't a secret that Demons had a bad reputation back in Medius, so why should it be any different here), if they would 'accidentally' trample the moron (he had to be a moron to show a demon to some kids) who had started all this. However, to my surprise, one of the children, a small girl, came forward with a look of wonder in her eyes. "You're from another world too? Where did you come from? Does everyone there look like that?" she started asking enthusiastically, before I found myself mobbed by the children who were either asking me questions, or taking a good look at me (some of them even thought my wings made me look 'pretty'). Not at all what I had expected, so much so that I couldn't even respond due to my surprise. This couldn't be right. Here was a demon standing in front of them, and these kids weren't the least bit afraid, and were even looking at me with…wonder? Did they actually think I looked interesting?

"Okay, settle down everyone," Shun laughed. "She can't answer all of you if you don't give her a chance."

A short while later (after answering more questions than I had ever been asked before in my life) I found myself sitting on the roof of the seaside shack with Shun as we watched the children play on the beach. "Why…?" I asked, my mind still trying to process what had just happened.

"Why what?" Shun asked almost lazily, before he laid back against the ground with his hands behind his head.

"Why weren't they afraid? Why did they accept me so easily?!" I asked/demanded, as once again my view on how the world worked was dealt a shattering blow.

"I already told you when we first met. What may have been the norm in Medius means nothing here. Sure, demons don't exactly have a good reputation in most worlds, and maybe at one point you wouldn't have been so readily accepted in most worlds, but that's a thing of the past," Shun sighed, earning a questioning look from me. "Neo Lumino," he suddenly said.

"Neo…Lumino?" I asked, caught off guard by the answer.

"It would be good for you to remember that name. He's a Rebirth like you and me, but unlike us, he's practically a legend thanks to his exploits, and it is because of him and his allies that the worlds have become like they are now. You see, Neo hates discrimination with a passion, mostly because he and his family had to go through all that crap before he became a Rebirth. You see a couple of decades ago, Neo and his 6 comrades fought in a great war against a terrible evil. In the aftermath of the war, many worlds that were already aware of the existence of each other decided to ban together in preparation in case another great evil rises again. It wasn't easy, but with the help of The Celestial Seven-that's the title given to Neo and his 6 comrades-they managed to create the foundation of what would eventually become a great alliance. As of today, the alliance has grown to encompass over a thousand worlds, with more being discovered every day. As for why the children are more accepting of you, this world, Destiny Islands, is one of original members of the alliance, so the people here get various characters from all over coming around all the time, and that makes them used to seeing people that aren't human. Another thing is that in order for this alliance to work, there were a few ground rules that all the worlds agreed to. In this case, the rule that's in play is the rule on discrimination. Discrimination is against the law, but to be sensible, how it works is that people judge others based on WHO they are instead of WHAT they are. That's why those kids were more accepting. They've been taught to not always judge someone based on how they look. Of course, the only real reason why you got a reaction like that was because I was the one who introduced you, since the kids know me. Otherwise, they wouldn't be quite as eager to talk to a stranger," he explained, before a cheeky grin appeared on his face. "Besides, all things considered, you're not that scary anyway."

"Really?" I asked in surprise, as I was generally considered as one of the more intimidating demons.

Shun just smiled slightly as he closed his eyes. "Trust me. Compared to some of the stuff I've seen, you're about as scary as a kitten. Heck, if you want to be REALLY blunt, compared to some of the ugly, hideous things I've seen, you're freaking gorgeous!" he laughed.

"Really?" I asked almost dumbly at his statement. If anything, the very idea that he, a human, thought a Demon like me could be gorgeous was hard to believe.

"Oh yeah, I'm not joking. To be honest, before I met you, when you say 'Demon', the first thing that comes to mind is something that looks like a starved corpse, has big sharp claws, looks like something that should be dead, but is somehow moving, and has the face that even its mother wouldn't love," Shun said. "Compared to that, you've got looks that would make a LOT of people I know come running towards you if they even thought they had a chance."

At this point, I looked at him like he had grown a second head. While I was somewhat flattered that he called me gorgeous (demon or not, I AM still a woman), but at the same time I couldn't get rid of the incredulous look I had at the (seemingly) sheer absurdity that he had just said, as in my mind, there was no way a human of all things would ever consider a demon like me to be attractive…right? It was at this point that I decided it was better that I stop asking him questions. It would be much gentler on my perception of reality that was already at death's door, and I would rather it not die a violent death in the face of the endless culture shock.

"So…you told me that other worlds exist out there, right?" I asked, wanting very much to change the subject.

"That's right," he nodded.

"What are they like?" I asked curiously.

"Well…It would be easier if you just saw them for yourself, but each world is unique in its own way, be it the way of life, the landscape, or even the residents of the world," Shun explained. "For example, I know one world where humans don't exist there, or at least aren't native to that world. Instead, everyone looks more or less like what people in your world would consider Demons, though they lack any and all magical abilities."

"There are worlds like that?" I couldn't help but ask in surprise.

"Oh yeah. There was even this one world where everyone there are these big robots, which are basically people made out of metal, then there's that world where people can turn themselves into data and enter computers, and the list goes on," Shun said as he listed down any world he could think of.

"I would like to see them. They certainly seem interesting," I said as I looked up at the blue sky. This world was beautiful, but listening to Shun made me want to see what else there was, as never before had I felt such wonder at the thought of other worlds.

"And you'll get your chance. For now, you need to get used to that new body of yours, cause trust me when I say that the universe is as deadly as it is wonderful. There are some worlds with monsters so scary and deadly, they'd chew you up and spit you out before you even know it. That's why it's important that you at least get used to your Rebirth body," Shun assured me. "By the way, why do you seem so interested in seeing the other worlds? Sure it's fascinating and all, but I sense quite a lot of eagerness from you."

"Oh? That's because back before I became a Rebirth I had a pen-pal from Purgatory. He was an incredibly talented poet, and he always wrote me poetry about things he had seen in life. That's part of the reason why I wanted to escape Hell so much. I wanted to see what he had seen in life," I explained.

"Sounds like quite a guy. His poetry must have been quite something if it pushed you that far. If it's any consolation, I'm sorry you couldn't see the world he saw, but at the very least, I hope you're happy with what you can see now," Shun commented with a smile.

"Yes, seeing this beautiful world, even if it isn't Medius, has been everything I had always dreamed about, and listening to you makes me want to see more," I said, earning an understanding nod. "Also, he inspired me to write some of my own poetry. In fact, I got my old notebook where I wrote that poetry back along with my Sun Pendant, since it was of sentimental value to me."

"You did, huh? Can I see?" Shun asked, before I gave him the note book to see, which happened to be on the same page as the time I showed it to Rhea (A/N: Uh oh). He seemed to read the Haiku for a moment, before stiffening.

"Well, what do you think?" I asked.

"Uhh… Sakido. Please don't take this the wrong way, but…" Shun started.

(One criticism/death wish later…)

BZZZZZZTTTT!

I flew away with an annoyed huff, as down below Shun laid there, smoking and twitching as electricity sparked around him, his normal hair style now resembling an afro.

**Flashback End (back to 3****rd**** person POV)**

Sitting back up, Sakido smiled slightly as she looked up at the clear blue sky. She couldn't wait to see the other worlds that were out there, and by now, she had more or less come to terms with (or rather accepted) the reality that she couldn't rely on the norm of how things were back in her home world, so now with the initial feeling of apprehension quickly fading, all that was left was a feeling of excitement and wonder at the prospect of seeing different worlds.

"I suppose I should get back to training. The sooner I get used to my new body, the better," she murmured with a smile as she got up and flew back to the beach where she knew Shun was probably waiting.

-break-

_2 days later…_

Sakido moved quickly as she gracefully dodged the barrage of bullets, quickly making her way to her target.

"Not bad!" Shun grinned as he plunged his left arm into another ripple, this time pulling out what looked like a broad sword (a technological broad sword at that) instead of his usual firearms. Once she got close, he immediately lashed out with the sword, only for her to flap her wings, creating a quick gust which she used to flip over the strike, landing right behind him.

Wasting no time, she immediately slashed at him with her claws that were covered in lightning, but he managed to block it with his sword, which pushed him back a few feet.

"So, what do you think?" Sakido challenged.

"Good, you've definitely gotten the hang of your new body. Your movements, strength, and speed are completely different than the last time we sparred, and the fact that this was only within 2 days is impressive," Shun acknowledged. "However, just so you know, I'm not even starting to get serious. Compared to a Rebirth's true power, this is nothing."

"Oh? So I've still got a long way to go, then?" Sakido smirked confidently, earning a nod in response. "Well then, looks like I've got to keep working at it. After all, you're not going to let me leave this world unless I do."

"Hey, don't say it that way! You make it sound like I'm keeping you prisoner here, which I am most certainly not," Shun shot back. "Besides, by normal standards you're strong enough now, so let's wrap this up."

"Alright then," Sakido nodded, clearly seeing the challenge as they both got into a stance, with Shun having placed his gun away to better grip the sword, while she had readied a dark spell which covered her claws with energy.

As though a silent signal had sounded, the two of them charged at each other and in a split second, both their attacks flashed before they passed each other. Neither of them moved for a moment, before Sakido slumped to her knee as a fresh gash appeared on her left arm.

"Heh, you were holding out on me," Shun simply commented, right before a small explosion happened on the back of his left arm, revealing wires and internal machinery which were now covered in sparks from when she had hit him with a Darkness spell.

"Does that put your doubts to rest?" Sakido asked with a confident smile/smirk, despite the pain in her left arm.

"Yeah, there's no doubt about it. You're ready," Shun smiled as he walked over to her before ripping off a piece of his cloak to bandage the wound he had caused. "I assume you want to leave immediately."

"Sounds good," Sakido nodded as she got back on her feet, but frowned slightly when she noticed his arm. "Your arm…"

"That's right; I never did tell you about this arm of mine. I'll explain later. For now…" Shun said before he held out his right hand, causing a portal to appear. "As promised, I'll show you the other worlds."

Sakido just smiled in response before the two of them stepped through the portal, as she felt a sense of wonder and anticipation fill her. Her life was changing, and it was changing faster than she could have ever expected, but…was it really such a bad thing? "_Truly, its times like this when I feel that this life truly is a blessing,_" she thought with a gentle smile as the gentle light of the portal enveloped them both, opening the path to the new world, before revealing a small square with a garden within a town surrounding a massive castle.

-break-

(Ending theme 1, "Itsumo" OST Transformers: Galaxy Force)

_*music*_

As the music starts, we see a shot of the sky, as snow falls down to the ground

_Kimi no kokoro ni aru shinjitsu… Kimi no egao de yume wa kagayaku…_

The scene changes to show a shot of Sakido from behind, as she is standing inside a cave as she watches the heavy rain outside.

_Kimi no karada ni nemuru yuuki… Me no mae no kabe mo nante koto nai_

The scene changes again to show Sakido walking through a barren wasteland as a strong wind and heavy rain pelt against her, while she walks against it, holding her side as though injured…

_Bokura deatta imi mo wakaru yo. Sukoshi mimi o sumaseba…_

Sakido begins to sway slightly, before the scene then shows a close up of her, as something starts glowing from within her gown and on her wrists, revealing them to be her Sun Pendant and Darius' feathers respectively, before the glow envelops the screen.

_Ashita ga yondeiru Ima sugu iku yo. Ryoute o tsubasa ni kaete…_

The scene changes to show Sakido's shocked expression, as she has suddenly been turned back into her childhood self, before she sees visions of her family, starting with baby Buwaro, who smiles at her while holding up his little paws, followed by an image of young Iratu who is grinning playfully at her, before finally Darius appears, whilst holding out his hand towards her with a gentle smile on his face

_Dare ni mo makenai sa ikinuku koto ga _

Young Sakido's face blooms with joy as she runs towards them, but just as she is about to reach them, the screen is enveloped in a bright light

_Bokura o kaeteiku_

The scene changes to show Sakido lying on the ground on a field of grass as her eyes open, before she looks towards the image of Darius which fades away, revealing Shun who is kneeling next to her, holding his hand out to her while he smiles gently

_Koete tsuyoku nareru…_

Sakido blinks in surprise, before her features soften considerably and a warm smile appears on her face as she takes Shun's hand and slowly stands up

_*music*_

Once Sakido is back on her feet, Shun walks towards the screen, beckoning her to follow. Sakido smiles gently, before she follows him. The scene then shifts to show Sakido from behind, walking towards Shun who is standing alongside 3 shadowed figures, with a Gummi Ship in the background.

(theme end)

-break-

Author's note:

Here is the first chapter of SD: Wind of Rebirth and Redemption. If anyone is wondering, this takes place during the canon comic, and will build up to an eventual AU split. Also, if anyone noticed, I referenced a previous fic in this chapter.


	3. Birth of a New Bond, Descending Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the OCs.

A/N: Credit also goes to artist "the-ever-eternal" as my beta reader

"Slightly Damned" – talking

"_Rebirth_" – thinking

-break-

(Opening theme 1, "Harukaze" by Scandal)

Chapter 2: Birth of a New Bond, Descent of the Darkness

Sakido blinked in surprise at the radically different world they were now in. While the Destiny Islands were covered in greenery, this world was more…dull in appearance, as there were a lot of buildings and streets made of gray stones, even if the roofs and gardens added a little color to it. "This is…" she started, not quite sure how to describe it.

"The world we're currently in is known as The Radiant Garden. Even if it's not quite as pretty as the Destiny Islands, there are a few spots here that help this place earn its name," Shun said with a shrug.

"Why did you pick this world, then?" she asked, as she had been expecting something… different.

"Well, to be fair, I heard this world used to be a dump thanks to some villains that were defeated a couple of decades ago. Thankfully this worlds been restored to its former glory. As for why I had us come here, for starters, I'm currently living here." Shun answered. "Also, I have to get my arm fixed and get some supplies before we go anywhere. Trust me; the universe is NO place you want to tackle unprepared."

"Fair enough," Sakido nodded, seeing the logic in his argument, as she followed him into the nearby residential district, before they stopped in front of a small house. Stopping in front of the door, several rings suddenly appeared and moved over Shun as he was covered in a transparent field of light, as words started appearing all over the field. This went on for a few moments before the light retracted and the rings disappeared, before the door opened. Inside the house, it was simply furnished with a fireplace, a bed, a bookshelf, a large chest, and a middle sized computer terminal with a box-like apparatus by the side.

"Even though I live here, I don't stick around often. If anything, I just use this place to keep my supplies and anything important I find, hence the security system out front," Shun explained as he walked towards the chest, placing his hand on top of the chest, as a light appeared on the chest and scanned his hand (a palm scanner), before the chest opened by itself. Looking through the chest, Shun pulled out several supplies, which Sakido recognized as being mostly medical and food supplies. "Hm… Looks like I'm running low on supplies. I'll restock them later," Shun mused as he pulled out a medical kit. "While we're at it, we might as well patch you up. The wound I gave you looked quite deep," he added, as true enough, the ripped piece of his cloak he had used to bandage the wound on her arm looked quite blood soaked.

"No, it's fine. It's just a scratch," Sakido declined, since this was certainly not the worst wound she had gotten, though she did appreciate his concern. It felt…nice.

Shun just looked at her for a moment, before shrugging. "Alright, but don't hesitate to say anything. It would be pretty dumb if you lost a life just because of something like that acting up," he said as he stuffed the medical kit into his cloak, the box disappearing somehow. With that done, he walked over to the terminal and activated it.

Sakido continued to watch, curious at what he was doing, only to notice that the symbols that appeared on the console were unfamiliar to her, as they were neither Lingo (English), nor Angelic (A/N: If anyone is wondering, Shun's terminal is set to Japanese), so she was unable to read it. Shun continued to work for a few seconds, before the apparatus next to the terminal suddenly came to life. Responding to this, Shun rolled up his left sleeve, revealing that his whole arm, from the left shoulder down, was black and metallic. Suddenly, several appendages emerged from the box and attached themselves to Shun's arm.

What happened next was something Sakido probably wouldn't forget for a long time, as it seemed like the appendages were doing something to Shun's arm, before the arm was promptly removed (if it were physically possible, her jaw would have hit the ground at this point, as to her, it looked like he had just cut off his own arm) and stored into the box before she noticed several smaller appendages in the box start doing something to his arm, evident by the sparks she saw as the box did…whatever it was supposed to do (repairs).

With his arm now being repaired, Shun turned away from the console and noticed the expression on her face, which he thought looked absolutely priceless. Chuckling inwardly, he started walking towards the door. "You coming? I figured we might as well talk while I give you a tour. You said you wanted to see other worlds, right?"

At that, Sakido blinked in surprise at how casually he was talking after just removing his own arm, her mind struggling to process the sheer absurdity of what she had just seen. she thought, remembering how cold and lifeless the arm felt, which made her wonder about it for a moment before following him.

"So, when do you intend to explain that 'arm' of yours to me? You just REMOVED your own arm, something that most normal people don't do," she asked impatiently as she followed him down the street.

"My arm? Heh, I haven't had a real left arm since the burning pillar fell on it back when I was 8," Shun snorted, he inwardly found Sakido's shocked expression to be amusing, not the least bit worried by the fact that currently he only had one arm.

"You lost your real arm when you were 8? So that was a fake arm?" she asked in surprise, both at what she was hearing, as well as his flippant admission. "But, how could you possibly replace your arm like that…?" she started in confusion. The very idea that a lost limb could be so easily replaced was unheard of to her.

Shun just chuckled at that. "Again, you're relying too much on how YOUR world works. Maybe where you came from the loss of limbs is permanent, but here, it's possible to replace lost limbs thanks to the advancements in medical technology. Oh, and before you ask, technology is something we have here that can achieve a lot of incredible marvels through the application of science. Think of it as a form of magic that doesn't actually use magic and anyone can use," he explained. "In my case, my original arm was pretty much burnt to a crisp back then, so now I've replaced it with a cybernetic arm. A metal arm that acts just like a regular arm, if you will."

Sakido closed her eyes as she tried to understand what she had just heard, but ultimately came to a blank, as yet again she found more things that just didn't make sense to her. In the end she just shrugged, deciding to just take his word for it. "_Bottom line: they can make fake limbs to replace real ones,_" she mentally sighed, deciding that she'd have a better chance understanding this strange new world if she took his word for it and not try to over analyze it herself. "So, where are we going?" she asked.

"First of all, to the market district, since I need to restock on some supplies first. After that, I want to give you a tour of the town. I did promise you I'd show you the other worlds, and I intend to keep it. Besides, this world wasn't named 'Radiant Garden' for nothing, since I do know several locations that are quite beautiful to see, though I don't think they'll be quite as beautiful as Destiny Islands," Shun said, before helplessly shrugging his shoulders at the last part.

Sakido just nodded as they walked towards the market district, which was bustling with activity. Once again, she couldn't help but blink in surprise at the sight she saw, for not only were there humans in the market district, but a myriad of other creatures, such as small white creatures with red puffs over their heads, humanoid animals that walked upright like humans, people that looked like Angels, however with blonde hair rather than white, and most shocking of all, several creatures that were somewhat frightening in appearance that bore a strong resemblance to her kind. What's more, while the two of them were walking, a lot of people saw them (she inwardly tensed, readying herself in case they attacked or did something), yet didn't bat an eye, as to them it was an everyday sight. Something that boggled her mind, causing her to lightly touch her head as she tried to comprehend.

"Hm? The town's quite bustling today," Shun idly commented, not at all surprised at the sight, just as he noticed Sakido giving him an incredulous look. "Something wrong, Sakido?"

"Wh-? Bu-? How are…?" Sakido was about to say, her mind trying (and failing) to process what she was seeing (a sight that should not have ever been possible back in Medius), but then she remembered what Shun had told her back on Destiny Islands and decided to spare herself the trouble. "It's…nothing. I guess I just still find it hard to believe that all these people are here, even those Demons, yet they're acting like its all normal," she sighed tiredly as she rubbed the side of her head. If she thought Destiny Islands was strange, this world was many times more stranger than the islands. Here were a myriad of different races, some of them looking like her own kind, Demons, that should have started attacking each other by now, yet here they were walking around with each other, doing business, and generally interacting without so much as a raised eye brow. At this point, she was desperately trying to keep her calm as once again the sheer strangeness of the situation (for her) was breaking apart her perception of reality.

"Easy there, Sakido. No need to rush. Just take it one step at a time. Trust me, I was the same when I first became a Rebirth," Shun said reassuringly. "Also, for future reference, those 'Demons' don't like to be called that. The politically correct term is 'Darkstalker'."

"Darkstalker? Wait you were!?" Sakido asked in surprise at Shun's first statement (she filed the second statement away for later), as Shun seemed like the type to be more open minded.

"Oh yeah. I nearly splattered an innocent Moogle's brains when I panicked, and I would have done it too if my mentor hadn't stopped me," Shun weakly chuckled, remembering the…less enjoyable memory.

Sakido nearly laughed at the thought of the seemingly unflappable Shun panicking, but stopped herself as she could tell that this was something Shun wasn't proud of. Instead, she thought of something he had just mentioned. "Your mentor? You had a mentor?"

"Yeah. You could say I'm one of the lucky Rebirths who had someone to call a mentor. Though rather than a mentor, he was more like a father to me," Shun nodded, his expression becoming slightly saddened.

Sakido winced when she saw the look on his face, realizing that she had brought up a sore subject, especially considering Shun had just said that his mentor had been like a father to him. A situation she was all too familiar with herself.

"Don't worry. You didn't know. Besides, it couldn't be helped. Thomas' time as a Rebirth was already at its natural end, and when he said goodbye, he had no regrets," Shun reassured, as he noticed her wince. "Now enough with the mopey stuff. Let's get those supplies first," he said as they stopped in front of a shop with one of the small white creatures from earlier manning it.

"Welcome-kuppo!" the creature greeted, Sakido's eyes widening from the sudden fact this "thing" could talk, before it recognized the customer. "Ah, Shun. It's been a while-kuppo!"

"That it has, Mog. As always, I won't be here long. I just need to restock on supplies, so I'll take my usual order," Shun nodded, referring to the creature as 'Mog'.

"I understand-kuppo. I'll get you your order in a minute," Mog nodded before going to the back of the shop, before coming back with 2 boxes, one smaller than the other (though both were still in decent size), and placing them on the counter. With the boxes on the counter, Shun opened them to inspect the contents.

Curious as to what he was buying, Sakido peered over his shoulder to see that the smaller box was filled with several packets shaped like bars, and several trays that were covered in a metallic foil, while the larger box was filled with several bottles filled with an odd greenish liquid, a few first aid kits, a few glowing blue crystals, and a tiny packet that Shun opened to reveal 3 small green beans.

"You're in luck-kuppo. Those are the last Senzu Beans in stock till we get the next shipment. Either way, that'll be 10000 Munny," Mog said.

"Right," Shun nodded as he reached into his cloak and pulled out a small brown pouch/bag with an odd symbol on it, before taking out several marble-like balls (all colored yellow and blue) of varying sizes. Taking several of them, he handed them to Mog who then deposited it into a cash register.

"Thank you for your patronage-kuppo," Mog said.

"Yes, I'll be sure to come again when I need more supplies. Also, I have something I need to do after this, so I'd like for this to be delivered to my house," Shun nodded.

"Understood. We'll have this delivered to your house right away. Come again-kuppo," Mog nodded before Shun turned away from the shop.

"Alright, that takes care of the supplies. Now then-" Shun offered, before noting the look of shock on Sakidos face "Whats the matter?"

Sakido simply face palmed, rubbing her forehead and mentally berating Shun. "_Y__ou just talked to and got served by a bunny rabbit with-__,_" she was thinking, before she lowered her hand from her face and exasperatedly declared "NOTHING! just ... nothing!"

Shun noted her tone and decided now might be the best time to leave, seeing Sakido struggling with the concepts of her old life.

He opted to change the subject "How about that tour I promised you?"

Sakido, still reeling, just rolled her eyes and decided to say nothing on the subject, for now "Alright. I do want to see the other worlds. Besides, considering you 'live' here, I assume we'll be coming here every now and then," Sakido nodded.

"Right then, right this way," Shun said as she followed him. The two of them walked out of the shopping district and came upon a set of stairs overlooking several platforms; each colored a pretty mixture of pinkish-purple and blue, with jets of water spouting every now and then. A sight that made Sakidos stomach and head release themselves from the myriad of knots they had had built up in the past hour.

"Here's our first stop, The Fountain Court," Shun said before he was able to get a good look at the court, just as he sighed. "Looks like the fountains aren't all on. A shame really, since it's quite a sight when all of them are on at the same time. Oh well, at least the platforms are still nice to look at."

"I suppose they are," Sakido nodded, as she did admit that the platforms did look rather nice, though she still thought that the court itself was quite a letdown compared to the sights she had seen in Destiny Islands.

"Oh well, there are still a couple more places I know, so let's…hold on," Shun said as he spotted something by the fountains.

"Hm? What is it?" Sakido asked as she looked towards what Shun was seeing, before her eyes widened at what she saw. Standing near one of the fountains was a small group of black creatures. Most of them looked vaguely humanoid, but were small and squat with spherical heads and yellow eyes, while one of them was noticeably different, as it had a puffy head and a black smock that made it look like some kind of mushroom. "Heartless…" she murmured, remembering what Shun told her about these creatures. According to Shun, Heartless are the manifestation of the darkness within peoples' hearts, that if allowed to run rampant, will consume them and rob them of their hearts, leaving them as these-as Shun called them-'pitiful creatures, no better than mindless beasts'.

"Shadows and a Black Fungus?" Shun said in surprise, having identified the Heartless breeds, but shrugged as he pulled out his Thompson Contender. "Hold this for me, please," he said, as he opened the barrel of the gun and handed it to Sakido. He then clenched his right hand into a fist and began to concentrate. "Bullet Creation…Commence."

_Core element… selected_

_Bullet material… selected_

_Bullet type…selected_

"Creation completed," Shun said as he opened his hand and out came a sphere of light which condensed into a bullet, and with a flick of his finger, the bullet landed into the open barrel of his Thompson Contender.

"That was…?" Sakido blinked, as she felt the energy coming off the bullet. This was definitely NOT like summoning an item from their initial lives.

"It's a special ability that I gained when I became a Rebirth. I call it "Bullet Creation", since it allows me to make any type of ammo I desire. You could say it makes any bullet I can imagine into reality," Shun explained as he took back his gun, closed up the barrel, and aimed it at the Heartless. "If it were just Shadows, I wouldn't usually be going this far, but Black Funguses are notoriously poisonous, so I'd rather not take any chances," Shun said, before firing.

The bullet shot through the air and struck one of the Shadows. Instantly, the Shadow stiffened, before a glow appeared in its head and then it exploded as a burst of light came out of it, piercing the other Heartless and instantly destroying them.

"Burst bullet: Light element. Guaranteed kill on any small fry Heartless it hits, and perfect for dealing with a group of them," Shun chuckled, satisfied with his handy work. "Well then, now that that's taken care of, let's go to the other spots I know of."

"Alright, then. Lead the way," Sakido shrugged as Shun started walking back to the market district. She was about to follow him when she noticed something from the corner of her eye. Turning back, she saw some leftover darkness radiate from where the Heartless had been defeated, before it seemed to dissipate, leaving nothing left. At this, she narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but ultimately turned to follow Shun, as at this point she couldn't have been sure what it was.

As the two of them passed the market district and approached the residential district. "Hold on, the repairs on my arm should be done soon, so I'll go get it first," Shun suddenly said as they were passing his house.

"Alright. I'll wait out here," Sakido nodded, as he quickly entered his house, leaving her by herself.

With Shun gone for the moment, Sakido quickly leaned against a nearby wall for support as she tiredly held her head, which was starting to hurt from the sheer amount of culture shock she had just experienced. She still couldn't quite wrap her mind around it, as here was a world where various different races existed alongside each other, yet they acted like it was nothing. Back in Medius, a scene like this would have erupted in bloodshed, yet here…here everyone didn't seem to care the least bit about that, nor did they seem to notice or care that a Demon had just walked past them, though Shun DID tell her that she didn't quite look like the average Demon from around here, so that might have had something to do with it. She would have continued to agonize over this, but stopped when something suddenly caught her attention.

"Oh, why can't I ever seem to remember this address exactly?" came a voice out of nowhere, just as a puff of blue smoke appeared.

"Huh?" Sakido blinked in surprise, as out of the smoke came an old man in a blue robe and hat. The man had gray hair and a very long beard with a pair of glasses on his face. The man was about to walk towards a house at the other end of the street when he took notice of her.

"Hm? I don't believe I've seen you before. I'm quite certain I would remember if a Demon lived in Radiant Garden, and a Rebirth at that," the old man mused.

"Huh? How did you know?" Sakido couldn't help but say in surprise, not just because this man was actually the FIRST person she had met since becoming a Rebirth that could immediately tell she was a Demon (without her telling them first), but he actually could tell that she was a Rebirth without seeing her mark (Shun had said that Rebirths were generally indistinguishable from normal people, except for when their marks were visible, or when they were tapping into their powers). Even stranger still, was that while he knew what she was, he didn't seem the least bit worried, or even apprehensive (yet another thing that to add fuel to her quickly growing migraine).

"Oh, we wizards have a way of knowing these sorts of things, and I, Merlin, am one of the best," the old man, now identified as Merlin, chuckled. "After all, the dark energy coming off of you is the type that only Demons could have, and of course there's the tell tale magic that only the Master could bestow, even if it was very well concealed."

"You certainly don't seem all that worried about talking to a Demon. Everyone else I've seen hasn't batted an eye at that, but they didn't know. Why are you no different when you know what I am?" Sakido asked cautiously. That didn't sound right to her. This old man, Merlin, had just said that he felt the dark magic that Demons held, yet he still remained entirely unaffected by the fact.

"Come now, you should already know why that is, you being a Rebirth and all," the old man chuckled, as though he had just heard a good joke. When he was done, he saw the look on her face that said that she was serious. "I see… so you weren't joking," he said, his tone becoming serious. "It's quite simple really, just because one possesses the power of darkness, doesn't automatically make them evil. Light and Darkness are simply 2 different ways for power to express itself, therefore they do not dictate whether or not someone is good or evil. That in itself is your own choice. Now I'll admit I'd normally be a little more cautious around Demons, but the fact that you are a Rebirth already means that at the very least, you are not evil, for evil cannot wield nor receive the powers that a Rebirth holds," he explained.

Sakido listened and processed what he had just said. Thinking about it for a moment, she realized what he had just told her, as to her, it was just like the explanation she had with Rhea back in the Ring of the Slightly Damned. "_It's all our choice. That's why everyone is so accepting here. They don't care about how we're born, they care about the choices we make. But…how can that be? How can they possibly be alright with something as simple as that?_" she thought, remembering Shun's explanation to her of how the world they were in worked. It didn't make any sense. It was naïve, childish, simple, yet… yet it worked and was being done. She just couldn't understand it. How could they be able to use such a simple, flawed concept, yet still make it work? It didn't make sense, shouldn't have been possible, yet it was. And when she thought back on how it was like to be treated normally without anyone looking at her simply because of what she was, and the more she thought of the idea, the more she felt that…she hated it. It wasn't right. If everyone really did judge each other based on who they were rather than on sight, then that meant they had left their guard down, that here they were all weak, naive, and stupid. If it didn't matter what she was and everyone only cared about who she was, then that would only served to get them close, to make them vulnerable, and the smallest opportunity could undo anyone or everyone at a moments notice, and yet, here, she didn't have to worry about people judging her like how it had been all her life, nor would they expect her to behave in a certain way, a lot like when she was with Darius...

It was at this point that her eyes started to well up, desperately wanting to cry as the weight on her mind seemed to increase tenfold as she struggled to understand this strange and foreign concept, not because it was foreign per say, but because it opened alot of old wounds, and that made her feel sick. It wasn't because she was taught to hate her own father, nor was it because she was taught to frown upon the happiness the memories brought, but rather because she wanted it to be that way again. She wanted…Oh how much she wanted…for things to go back to how they were before that day. Before the day that continued to haunt her to this very day. She wanted it…she wanted her family back more than anything, and the realization that a world like this would have accepted her family without question, only seemed to pour more salt into the already painful wound.

It was at this point that Shun came out of his house (now with his cybernetic arm back in place and completely repaired).

"I'm back. Sorry it took a while," he said as he walked towards her, just as he noticed that she was leaning against the wall with a hand on her head as though she was suffering from an intense headache. "Sakido? Are you alright?" he asked, his tone worried as she had been fine when he had left her earlier, before he reached out towards her.

"Don't touch me!" Sakido suddenly snapped, causing him to recoil.

"Sakido, what's wrong?" Shun asked in surprise.

"What's wrong?! I'll tell you what's wrong! The people here, their way of thinking, even this world itself!" she shouted in frustration. "How can everyone be so different, yet they don't care?! How can they just judge based on who people are?! It's naïve! Childish! How can a world like this possibly exist?!" she shouted, just as she began to calm down. "I'm sorry. This is just too much for me. I…I need to be alone for a while," she sighed before flying away.

"Sakido…" Shun frowned sadly as he watched her fly away. He knew that she was carrying a very painful burden in her (he had realized it since the very first time he had looked her in the eyes and saw the sadness they held), yet he never realized just how serious it was until now. Sighing sadly, he turned towards Merlin. "What…happened while I was in my house?"

"I…really don't know. All I did was explain why I wasn't afraid or worried despite knowing she was a Demon. If anything, I think the poor girl had a lot on her mind before I even started talking to her," Merlin explained.

"I see…" Shun mused. He had thought that by being friendly with her, and by being patient and helpful to her, he would be able to help her at least open up and start trusting him before he would help her with whatever pain she still carried from her first life, but only now did he realize just how much she was hurting on the inside, and worse, it seemed like showing her that this world wasn't the kind of world where she always had to be on guard had ended up backfiring, as it only seemed to add to her distress.

"If I may, even if she did say she wanted to be alone, I think it would be best if you followed her, at least to make sure she's alright," Merlin suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Thanks, Merlin. Sorry we couldn't meet at a more…favorable moment," Shun nodded.

"That's quite alright. You didn't plan for this after all. Besides, I need to get back to my workshop anyhow," Merlin nodded.

"Right. Now then… Aero Slider!" Shun called out as circuits appeared over his left arm, before another ripple appeared and out came a hover board. The hover board was colored a dark blue color, shaped vaguely like a surf board, albeit wider than a regular one, and had a pair of jets attached to the back. Hopping on, he immediately triggered the propulsion and flew off in the same direction that Sakido was headed.

Merlin had a gentle smile on his face as he watched him leave. "Take care you two, for the journey ahead will not be easy," he murmured, before he frowned and looked up at the sky. "Something will begin soon," he mused as a small wisp of darkness appeared in the sky for a moment, before disappearing.

-break-

"Of all the places she could have gone, how is it that she's in the very place I was planning on showing her? Oh well, if anything she picked a good spot to clear her head," Shun muttered as he had the Aero Slider descend. Chasing after the distressed wind demon, he was worried she might have gone too far for him to find her, or she might have deviated from her course. What he didn't expect, was the sheer coincidence that she had been headed for the Outer Gardens, and even stranger was the fact that he saw her in the Outer Gardens, the very place he had been planning to show her.

As usual, the Outer Gardens were relatively empty. At the center of the garden was a fountain/monument of some kind with a small fountain/pond surrounding the monument. Surrounding the area at the edges of the area were several small gardens with several fountains surrounding it, giving the place a calming feel, with said wind demon was sitting on the edge of one of the fountains, just shy of the bridge that led out of Radiant Garden.

Stepping off of his Aero Slider, Shun slowly walked towards her. "_She must really have a lot on her mind if she didn't even notice me,_" he thought. "Hey…" he said as he sat down next to her, catching her attention. She was about to say something, but he cut her off. "Look, about just now, don't worry about it. It's pretty obvious you've already got a lot on your mind, so don't sweat it. If anything, I shouldn't have been piling all that on you, considering how radically different this world must be compared to yours."

Sakido just looked at him, before she sighed. "It's not that I don't like this world or anything. If anything, this world is a much happier world than anything I could have ever expected. It's just that…it all seems too good to be true…Where I came from, if anything like this place were to happen, the only way I could possibly see it ending was in a blood bath, yet here…It just feels like it's too perfect," she admitted

"I can understand what you're trying to say. After all, it took me a few months to get used to how this world worked," Shun nodded, remembering his first time as a Rebirth, before he had a small smile on his face. "But once I came to accept that this was all real, I finally could see just how beautiful this world is. That's why you don't have to worry. Nobody is forcing you to accept anything when you're not ready. Just take it all in at your own pace," he smiled.

Sakido just nodded, not sure how to respond to that, before she turned her gaze back to the seemingly endless expanse of ocean and mountain that surrounded Radiant Garden. A small smile appeared on her face as she watched the simple yet beautiful sight. "Even if it's not quite like Destiny Islands, this place is beautiful in its own way," she admitted.

"Yeah, that's why I find this place one of the nicer spots in Radiant Garden. In fact, I often come here whenever I need to calm down, or when I'm upset," Shun nodded, before a small chuckle escaped his lips. "If anything, I'm surprised that you came here, considering I was just planning on showing you this place," he said, before a thoughtful look crossed his features. "Hey Sakido, what was your world like?" he suddenly asked.

"Why would you want to know about how my world was like?" Sakido asked in surprise, as she HAD told him before that she was a Demon from Hell.

"You just told me you were having a hard time accepting how this world works. Also, I noticed you're always kinda guarded, like you don't really trust anyone," Shun explained with a frown. "Or maybe it would be more right to say that I feel like you're afraid to trust anyone, like you expect them to stab you in the back or something," he sighed, before he looked at her with a gentle smile. "I know you told me that you used to live in Hell, and I can make a pretty good guess that living in Hell had a lot to do with why you seem to have such a hard time trusting me and I know it won't be easy to change that, but that's exactly why I want to help you. I don't know what you've been through, but I can tell its hurt you deeply."

Sakido looked at him, surprised that he could read her so easily, yet for some reason; it didn't make her feel better. If anything, she felt angry at how he was talking to her and how he seemed to be analyzing her. "What do you know?!" she shouted as she grabbed him by his coat (much like she had when they first met) and glared at him. "What gives you the right to just say those kind of things, when you've no idea the kind of life I've had?!" she demanded, tears actually falling from her eyes as the many painful memories resurfaced.

Shun didn't respond, though he did inwardly wince at the reaction, since he had meant that to be reassuring. "You're right. I don't know, and I don't have the right to judge, and for that, I'm sorry if I offended you," he apologized. "However, I do know this. I can see it in your eyes. You've lived a difficult life, forced to rely only on yourself while keeping everyone else out. Maybe it's because you were betrayed by someone you trusted, or maybe it's because you lost someone you cared for. All I can tell is that you've lived a life nobody deserves, and it's left its mark," Shun said as he looked at her sadly, as for a moment, he saw the all too familiar look of pain in her eyes. Not pain that was inflicted on the body, but pain that was inflicted on her heart, and he could tell that it was still eating away at her. Like himself, Sakido was injured. Not in body, but in heart, and the wounds were very deep. The difference was that while his wounds were (at the very least) already healing, hers were still as fresh as the day they were first inflicted. "Please understand. I want to help you. You're hurt, Sakido. Not out here, but in here," he said, pointing at her heart. "You can't keep going on like this. If you do, you'll only be killing yourself in the slowest and most painful way possible."

Sakido blinked in surprise at his words, before putting him down and looking away. "Why? Why are you trying so hard to help me?" she asked, since it was the truth. Ever since she had become a Rebirth, Shun had been helping her every step of the way (albeit in his own goofy way). "You barely know me, and I've never once trusted or opened up to you... Yet you still…"

Shun sighed sadly at that. "It's true that I don't know YOU, and neither will I force you to open up or trust me. But…I know what it's like to be in so much pain on the inside," he admitted as he placed his hand against his heart. "It hurts so much, yet it won't go away. With bodily wounds, at least they'll heal by themselves over time, but when you're hurt on the inside, it hurts so much but it won't heal by itself no matter how much time passes. Sometimes it even hurts so much that you feel like you just want to die," he said as he closed his eyes, just as a tear leaked out.

Hearing him, Sakido couldn't help but look at him sadly as he described what she felt perfectly and in such a way that could only be possible because he was telling the truth. He knew how she felt because he had felt that way too. "Does…does it ever get better?" she asked.

"A little bit. I feel that my own wounds have started to heal, but that's only because I've had help, both from my mentor and my friends. They were there for me and supported me when I needed it, and they made me feel like it wasn't just my pain to bear, but something they were willing to share with me," Shun answered, a small smile on his face, before he looked her in the eye. "That's why I've been trying so hard. Sakido, I know what it's like to be in so much pain. Nobody deserves to feel that way, and that's why I want to help you, just as my friends did. I'll admit that I don't know what you've been through, but as far as I can tell, you've had to bare all this pain by yourself all your life. Why you had to doesn't matter right now. All I want you to know is that you don't have to keep doing that anymore. You're not alone anymore. I won't force you to accept my help, but I just want you to understand that I want to help you heal, just as others helped me heal, but I can only do that if you'll let me."

Sakido didn't know how to respond to that, nor did she know what to say. Internally, she was having a mental battle with what he had told her. On one hand, the side of her that had been hardened from all the years she spent as a warrior of Hell kept telling her not to trust him, that he was only doing this for his own reasons, and that he'd just stab her in the back once he was done. However, another side of her, the side that still wanted to believe in others, told her that he was being sincere and that she should trust him, even if just a little. She closed her eyes as she mulled it over, before she came to a decision. "I'd…like that, but…" she sighed. "I'm sorry; it's just that for most of my life, I've had to always rely on only myself," she frowned. "You asked me how my world was like, so I'll tell you. I've only ever been in Hell, and it lived up to its name. Demons don't trust each other, so we always rely and trust only in ourselves. Maybe some demons have a sense of comradeship amongst each other, but that's extremely rare. Things like kindness, compassion, or any other kind of feelings or emotions that you'd associate with what most people call 'good' are considered signs of weakness in a demon, and those kinds of demons, if they ever get found out, usually get killed for showing signs of 'corruption', since those kinds of traits are similar to Medians, or worse, Angels," she explained.

Shun nodded as he heard her. "_No wonder she has a hard time trusting me or anyone else. It's practically been drilled into her head that being trusting is the same as being weak, and being weak means you die. I know she said she lived in Hell, but even I thought it couldn't have been THAT messed up,_" Shun thought as an angry look crossed his features. "Why were things like that? I get that Hell isn't supposed to be a nice place, and I get that being compassionate to other races would be a sign of weakness for Demons, you being essentially the wardens and all, but why would compassion amongst yourselves be considered weakness? Who's 'bright' idea was that?" he asked her in an angry tone, not at her, but rather at the world she had been forced to live in. While he had to admit that he too had had a hard time trusting anyone when he first became a Rebirth, as well as in his earlier years of life, it was because he CHOSE not to trust. However, for Sakido he could see that the world she lived in FORCED her not to trust, lest she risk losing her life, and somehow, he had a feeling that the reason why she was here in the first place had something to do with that.

Sakido looked at him in surprise at his reaction. "_He's upset? He's angry…not at me, but at how Hell had treated me and my kind?_" she thought incredulously. "Why are you so upset? It's not like you have to deal with it," she asked.

"Just because it doesn't have to do with me, doesn't mean its right! Damn it, what kind of messed up world is that?! Nobody should have to live in a world like that!" Shun retorted, before he sighed slightly. "Sorry about that, but the way you describe Hell is even more messed up than I imagined. Honestly, you went through that and STILL managed to be worthy of becoming a Rebirth, my respect for you just went up a few notches."

"About that…to be honest, even now I still have a hard time believing that I was considered worthy of being a Rebirth. I know you already explained it to me, but is it really alright that a Demon like me become a Rebirth?" Sakido said.

Hearing her, Shun sighed in response before he smiled slightly. "You know, if you had asked me this a few minutes ago, I'd have been annoyed. But considering the kind of world you had to deal with, I feel that I understand you a little bit better. To answer your question, just as I said before, the Master chose you to become a Rebirth because you regretted from the bottom of your heart something that you did wrong, and tried to make up for it. Aside from that, I guess you could say that the Master saw something in you that the Master thought fitting for a Rebirth," Shun explained again. "To be honest, I couldn't tell you exactly why we were chosen to be Rebirths, only that we fit the bill and the Master chose us," he sighed as he looked up at the sky. "Also, about just now…again, I won't force you to trust me, and considering what you had to go through, I don't blame you for not wanting to. But that doesn't change what I said earlier. I still want to help you, Sakido. I know what it's like to be in so much pain on the inside and it's because of that I want to help you," Shun said again before he got up. "Just think about it, okay. You're welcome to spend as long as you need here, and when you've cleared your head, I'll be waiting back at my house. Meet me there, then we can go see more worlds. After all, I did promise you that I would," Shun finished with a smile before he turned to walk away.

Just as he was about to pass the monument, Sakido suddenly called him. "Shun, wait!" she said.

"Yes?" he asked.

"About what you said. I'd like that…but I don't know where to start. Shun, I…I want to be able to trust you, but…" she trailed off.

Shun just smiled gently at that as he walked back to her. "It's alright; you don't have to force it. As for where to start, I know the perfect place," he smiled before extending his hand. "Hi there, I'm Shun Hayami. Would you like to be my friend?"

Sakido looked at him in surprise for a moment, before she smiled sadly, understanding what he was trying to say. "Don't take this the wrong way Shun, I know you mean well, but, right now I'm not strong enough to accept you as a friend." She said, causing Shun to drop his hand slightly at her retort, saddened for a moment, before she continued "But, I'd..." she said swallowing to fight back the hard lump in her throat trying to avoid tears in her eyes "I'd like that", she said, voice breaking, with a somber smile as she shook his hand, "Even if i can't call you a "friend" just yet." and with that, a bond had begun to form between them, even if it was still small.

With that done, Shun was about to leave when something caught his eye.

Suddenly, several balls of darkness appeared in midair, and a mob of Heartless emerged from them, specifically several Armored Knights, Soldiers, Surveillance Robots, and another Black Fungus.

"Again? We're having a real outbreak today," Shun sighed as he summoned his sub-machine gun. He was about to open fire when Sakido suddenly stepped in. "Sakido?"

"You've been trying to help me all this time, so it's only fair that I help you too," she said.

Now it was Shun's turn to get a surprised look on his face, before he smiled. "Alright then, I appreciate the help. Now then, let's show these Heartless who's boss!" he said, before they charged at the Heartless.

The ensuing battle was, to say the least, one sided, as the Heartless that had appeared were all weaker variants of Heartless, which meant that they were no match for the two Rebirths, and considering that both Rebirths were more focused on fighting from long range (Shun with his guns, and Sakido with her magic), made it almost impossible for the Heartless to fight back as they were either pelted by a barrage of bullets, or were electrocuted by bolts of lightning. Before long, all the Heartless were gone, except for the Black Fungus, which had conveniently hardened its body to near invulnerability (signified by its now gray body) during the onslaught.

"Another Black Fungus? I thought those things were supposed to be rare," Shun blinked at the odd occurrence, as nobody has ever heard of Black Fungi appearing in more than one place in the same world, nor has anyone heard of them appearing more than once a day maximum. "Meh, not that it makes a difference," he shrugged as a ripple appeared before his stuck his cybernetic left arm through it, pulling out what looked like some kind of sniper rifle. The rifle itself looked very futuristic, was black in color and with a cylinder/spiral shaped barrel. "Sakido! Send it flying with a wind spell!" he ordered.

"Alright," Sakido nodded, though she wasn't sure why he wanted her to do that, she decided that she would trust his judgment. Quickly casting a wind spell, the Black Fungus (still in its near invulnerable state) was promptly launched into the air as Shun took aim.

"See ya, wouldn't want to be ya! Luminous Shooter!" Shun called out as he fired the rifle, releasing a condensed blast of purple colored energy, which was actually a high-energy beam. The attack struck true as it hit the Black Fungus in mid-air, before violently exploding on contact in a massive blaze and completely destroying the Black Fungus, as its near invulnerability was rendered completely useless. "And that's that," Shun simply said as he dismissed the Luminous Shooter and dusted off his hands.

"I see why you wanted it in the air before you used that weapon," Sakido mused as she was still looking at the spot in the air where the Black Fungus had been blown up. Judging by the strength of the explosion, the weapon Shun had used could have devastated the Outer Garden if it had hit the Heartless while it were on the ground. "_Just a small step, but…I feel like I can trust him…I want to trust him,_" she thought, smiling slightly.

Shun didn't respond. Instead, he looked around him suspiciously.

"Is something wrong?" Sakido asked, having never seen him like this before.

"I'm worried about those Heartless. If it were just some of the common breeds, I wouldn't think anything of it. However, there was a Black Fungus with them," Shun said. "Black Fungus are an extremely rare breed of Heartless, so much so that they only ever come out once in a blue moon. But we just saw 2 of them in 2 different places in the same day. That's extremely strange."

"Alright, but why would that be reason to worry?" Sakido asked, still not understanding the reason.

"Because, there are people who can manipulate the Heartless. Sure it's pretty risky, since you could get 'eaten' any time if you don't watch it, but there are people crazy enough to do it. Heartless usually work solely on instinct, so any strange behavior usually means someone might be controlling them," Shun explained. Just as he finished talking, as though to confirm his suspicion, there was a burst of dark energy that filled the air.

Turning towards the source, they saw a massive ball of darkness hanging over the central square. "The hell?! How can that much darkness appear here?! This world's Keyhole was sealed long ago, AND this place should be protected!" Shun demanded to no one in particular as the two of them raced towards the Central Square.

"Well, looks like someone managed to get past that protection!" Sakido commented as they reached the Central Square. The sight that awaited them was not a pretty sight. The city guards were busy trying to defend the town. Now, had the Heartless been the normal variety that usually appeared in Radiant Garden, they would have been able to defeat them easily enough. However, instead of the usual Heartless, they were fighting against several Invisibles, Angel Stars, Wyverns, and Wizards, all of which were extremely high-leveled Heartless. As a result, the guards were quickly being pushed back and losing against the Heartless.

"Damn it! There's no doubt now, someone's manipulating the Heartless!" Shun gritted his teeth before circuits appeared over his left arm as several ripples appeared in mid-air and several missile launchers emerged. Clenching his fist, he triggered them to fire, unloading their payload on the Heartless, destroying a good number of them. "Sakido! We have to get the guards to safety! Against Heartless of this level they won't last long!"

"Right!" Sakido nodded as she charged up a lightning spell and fired it at several Heartless, destroying them. Unfortunately, just as she shot another bolt of lightning, a Wizard teleported in the way of the attack and absorbed the attack before it charged up a fire spell to counter. "_Crap! It's too close!_" Sakido thought as she had been flying towards the Heartless, so she wouldn't be able to change directions in time, and the Wizard was too close for her to evade. However, before the attack could be launched, the Wizard was pierced by a white streak, which revealed to be a Light Bullet, destroying it instantly. Quickly turning to the source she saw Shun holding his now smoking Thompson Contender.

"You said earlier that you can't think of me as a friend yet. Well then, at the very least you can think of me as a comrade for now," Shun quickly said, before a small smile appeared on his face. "But after that, I look forward to the day you feel ready to call me a friend. Oh well, for now we'll take that one step at a time," he added, just as an Angel Star appeared behind him, only to be blown to pieces by a Darkness Blast courtesy of Sakido. "_Kinda ironic, considering that was an __**Angel **__Star,_" Shun mentally sweat dropped.

"You're right. While I'm still not ready to call you a friend, I have no problems of seeing you as a comrade," Sakido nodded with a small smile.

"Right then. I've got your back, and you've got mine. Let's send these Heartless packing," Shun grinned as they charged right into the fray. The Heartless they were fighting were a lot tougher than the ones they had torn apart in the Outer Garden, but were still no match for the two Rebirths, especially when they were working together (and surprisingly well too, considering this was only the second time they were working together), so it wasn't long before the last of the Heartless were destroyed.

"That's the last of them," Sakido said, though she was also looking at her hands in wonder. While the fight had not taken that long, the amount of magic she had used in the fight would have normally left her exhausted by now, yet she wasn't even winded. "_This new body is incredible! My old body couldn't even compare to this,_" she thought.

"Now all that's left is dealing with the person responsible for the Heartless," Shun nodded, before he glared up at the sky (which was still shrouded in Darkness). "If it were some of the lower leveled Heartless, I would be wracking my brains for an answer. But with these high leveled Heartless, only 1 person could possibly control them!" he said, seemingly talking to the sky. "Show yourself, Maleficent!"

Sakido looked at him strangely and was about to say something, but the words died in her throat, as suddenly, as though in response to his words, a small pillar of green flames erupted at the center of the square. The flames burned for a moment, before they subsided, revealing a strange woman. The woman, Maleficent, as Shun referred to her had fair and green skin, with shining, yellow eyes that were heavily shadowed with violet make-up, red painted lips. Her head was topped with a black-horned headdress, and she was dressed in a long, tattered black robe with a purple trim and maroon edges which flared out. In her hand, she carried a staff with a glowing green orb at the tip.

Maleficent merely smiled her usual devious smile, not the least bit worried of being found out. "As expected of you, Shun Hayami. Truly, nothing escapes your sight. Of course, it's fitting that 'The Black Devastator' would let no one escape him, except through death," she mockingly complemented.

"_The Black Devastator?_" Sakido thought, wondering why Shun would have a title like that, since as far as she knew, while Shun was strong, he certainly didn't seem like the type to gain a title like 'devastator'. Turning towards him, she noticed the annoyed look he had, meaning that he did NOT like being called that.

"Oh? You have some nerve calling me by that title…witch!" Shun growled as he clenched his left fist. Immediately, circuits appeared over it again as countless ripples appeared in the sky as a seemingly infinite number of weapons (all of them being long-range type weapons, ranging from simple guns to gigantic cannons and missile launchers) emerged from the ripples, all of them pointing at Maleficent. "Let's see how much you talk once I reduce you to a bullet ridden corpse," he threatened darkly.

If it were physically possible, Sakido's jaw would have hit the ground at the sight of the sheer amount of weapons Shun possessed. It didn't help either that she did know that Shun was able to mentally trigger his weapons to fire…simultaneously too. "_By Syndel's crown…!_" she mentally realized. "_If he were to fire all those weapons at the same time…this whole place would be completely devastated!_" she thought, understanding where Shun could have gotten a title like that, even if he clearly did not like it.

"As amusing it would be to watch you try and fail to eliminate me, I simply came here to see the next stage of my plan to reclaim Hollow Bastion," Maleficent simply said, just as she noticed Sakido. "Well now, what do we have here? A Demon?" she asked, her calculative gaze on Sakido, before her eyes widened in surprise. "Well now, this is a surprise. To think a Demon could become a Rebirth. The standards must be dipping," she mocked, sensing the tell-tale energy of a Rebirth Mark through her connection with the Darkness (Rebirth Marks actively repulse evil energy, such as the Darkness that is used to form Heartless). "After all, someone like her would be more fitted with the Darkness," she laughed before a bullet grazed her face, leaving a cut on her cheek.

"Don't go lumping her in with your kind, witch! Sakido may be a Demon, but she's a far better person than you'll ever be!" Shun angrily retorted. From the very first time he had encountered the 'Mistress of Darkness' a little over a year ago, he had hated her with a passion. Everything about Maleficent, he despised with every fiber of his being. She was cruel, manipulative, viewed everyone else as just pawns to be used then thrown away in her own sick game, and above all, she seemed to take pleasure from the misery that her actions spread. As a result, he had very little patience when dealing with her, and wanted nothing more than to empty out every bullet he had into her body. Too bad the witch/evil fairy was just too darn slippery for him to actually kill. "Besides, do you honestly think we, or anyone will let you get your grubby hands on Radiant Garden? If you actually think we'll let you have it, you've finally gone off the deep end!"

"Me? Think that you'll just hand it over?" Maleficent laughed. "Oh no, I don't expect you to just hand it over. I expect you to let me have it…once all of you fade into the Darkness!" she laughed again before a large number of Black Fungi appeared all over Radiant Garden along with several Poison Plants and many other poisonous Heartless. Suddenly, the Heartless seemed to inflate, before they promptly burst, releasing ominous purple clouds.

"What?!" Shun said in surprise, just before his eyes widened in realization. "T-that's…!"

"What is it?! What's wrong?!" Sakido asked as her eyes were glued on to the purple smoke in the sky, as for some reason, an immense feeling of dread was welling up in her. "_W-what? Why am I feeling like this? I__s it __this__ smoke that's giving off this feeling?!_" she thought suddenly trembling as the sense of dread overwhelmed her.

"Miasma…" Shun gasped, before glaring a glare so fierce at Maleficent, that Sakido couldn't help but flinch at the killer intent Shun was giving off (he even seemed like a completely different person than the Shun she had been with for the last week).

Suddenly, all in a few brief moments, a flurry of images came to her. Images of death passed before her eyes as people fell in Radiant Garden, some suffocating in the streets as they clutched their throats, others already dead, and many more either desperately trying to find a way to either survive, or escape, some even burning at the city's edges as hands and feet banged against an invisible barrier, causing green flames to appear, charing their skin, people screaming, pleaing for their lives to be let out, only for Maleficent to laugh over their cries. The images had only taken a moment, yet to her, they felt like an eternity, as the images had felt so real and yet filled her with such contempt. "_Are these…Am I reading this 'Maleficent's' thoughts? Or…_" Sakido thought, before she reached down and felt the sudden feeling of warmth coming from her chest. Looking down, she noticed that her Rebirth mark was glowing despite her never having activated it. It was at this point that she understood, these images, this feeling, were of the Masters doing. The Master was showing her (and probably Shun as well) what would happen should this… THING (after what she had seen, she refused to see this 'Maleficent' as a person) be allowed to succeed.

"So that's it, huh? After all this time, you've finally realized you'd never be able to turn Radiant Garden back into Hollow Bastion with just the Heartless, especially when the worlds are united, and with the Keyhole sealed, you can't even have the Heartless devour this world. That's why you've decided to just drown us in this poisonous darkness. I'll bet you even set up a barrier to stop anyone from getting in, since you just want the world itself, so you couldn't care less about how many people live or die," Shun deduced, his eyes narrowing dangerously (so much so that Sakido was starting to think she was looking at one of her own kind rather than a human).

"Hmph. Perceptive as always. You're absolutely right. While I would love to see all of you wiped out, it benefits me more to have my old castle back. After all, it would be simple for me to send the Heartless after any survivors," Maleficent smirked.

Shun was silent for a moment, his head held down. Suddenly, his head shot back up, revealing an enraged expression on his face. "Yoooouuuuu wiiiiitttccchhh!" he roared as several guns suddenly appeared from underneath her and opened fire.

Maleficent was caught by surprise, but still managed to raise her barrier resulting in her simply being launched into the sky. However, once she reached a certain height, Shun triggered every weapon that he had summoned to open fire on her, pelting her with a veritable storm of bullets, missiles, lasers, cannonballs, and pretty much every kind of projectile weapon ever created. "How many?! How many lives are you willing to ruin?! How many worlds are you willing to trample on just for your selfish wishes?! You've been a blight on this universe for too long! Now then witch, do us all a favor and disappear! Final Salvo!" Shun declared over the sound of the endless barrage of weapons.

At the sight before her, Sakido couldn't help but take a step back. "_By Syndel's crown…Is this Shun's true power?_" she thought with a mixture of awe and a little fear. She remembered back on Destiny Islands that Shun had told her that he had not even begun to fight her seriously, and she was just realizing now that he had good reason to say so. If this truly was an attack fueled by his full power, then she wouldn't have lasted a minute against him. "_Had he participated in The Great War, he could have easily wiped out the forces of either Heaven or Hell,_" she thought, once again picturing how someone like Shun could have impacted her world. "_Could I…Could all Rebirths reach that kind of power?_" she wondered. The very thought that she could one day wield that kind of power was both exciting and for some reason frightening to her. She quickly snapped out of her thoughts, just as she noticed that Shun's Final Salvo was coming to an end.

With the attack over, the many weapons Shun had summoned retracted back into the ripples which faded away. Once the smoke cleared, all that was left was a wisp of Darkness that hung in the air. However, Maleficent had not been defeated, evident by her voice suddenly speaking from out of nowhere. "Imbecile! Did you really think an attack like that could defeat me? Fool! You have done nothing to slow my plans, and now you can watch as Radiant Garden returns to becoming my castle: Hollow Bastion!" Maleficent's voice mocked as her laughter rang in the air before it faded away. Once her voice faded away, the miasma descended upon the town, blanketing it with a mixture of poison and darkness.

"Shun, we have to get out of here!" Sakido said as she ran towards him. While she didn't know what miasma was, her instincts were screaming at her to get away from there as fast as possible. However, Shun didn't budge.

"Where would we run? This miasma is covering the whole of Radiant Garden, and right now opening a portal will just let it leak into another world at this point," Shun said, his expression somber. "There's no other choice. We'll have to stand our ground here until the miasma stops spreading. Only then can we figure out a way to get rid of it."

Sakido was about to protest, but stopped herself when she saw the look on Shun's face. It was clear to her that he was leaving no room for arguments, and neither did she think he was going to let her open any portals (not that she was planning to, since her own conscience wouldn't have let her sleep it she were to endanger other worlds just to save herself). "Alright. I understand," she nodded, earning a grateful smile and nod from Shun as he placed his hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

As the miasma approached them, Sakido instinctively raised her arms to defend herself, while Shun just looked at the oncoming wave with a glare, before they were both engulfed in the wave of darkness…

-break-

Author's note:

That's it for now. Here is chapter 2, and we have Sakido still having a hard time getting used to this kinder world, plus we get to see Shun and Sakido having a little moment together (we also get to see that Shun isn't quite the happy-go-lucky guy he seems to be). Also, the plot kicks in, starting with a cliffhanger. Enjoy

P.S.

To the guest who keeps pestering me to update Precure: Smile It's Showtime. Give it a rest! Pestering me to update a fic you like is NOT going to make me do it any faster, so don't go putting it on reviews. Thank you.


	4. Escape the Miasma! A New Threat!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the OCs.

A/N: Credit also goes to artist "the-ever-eternal" AKA Zer0DusT as my beta reader

"Slightly Damned" – talking

"_Rebirth_" – thinking

"**Attack!**" – Special attack being used.

"[Obey]" - ? talking

*Sound* - Sound effects

-break-

(Opening theme 1, "Harukaze" by Scandal)

Chapter 3: Escape the Miasma! A New Threat!

The scene at Radiant Garden was not pretty at all. The entire city was covered in a thick purple fog of poisonous miasma, ready to kill any living creatures that were unlucky enough to inhale it. However, one part of town was slightly different.

In the Central Square, a good amount of the miasma in the area seemed to be centered around something, evident by the faint glow that could be seen from within the mass of miasma. The glow became brighter, before a strong flash of golden light shone out and dispelled some of the miasma, revealing the two Rebirths that had been inside.

Sakido opened her eyes as the light from their Rebirth Marks faded, having protected them from the miasma. When she did, she couldn't help but gasp at the sight that awaited her, as the once lively town had now adopted a dead silence as the miasma twisted and contorted the world into a barren wasteland from the once prominent town it was even turning the castle in the distance into a weird protrusion of black prongs that jutted from the ground, a stark contrast from the streets before as the dense fog hovered over the town like the haze of death it was.

Next to her, Shun glared angrily at the sight before them, his fists clenched and his teeth gritted. "Maleficent" she heard him seethe angrily as a lump formed in his throat and his eyes burned. "She'll pay dearly for this" he whispered as he glanced around at the bodies now doting the streets, particularly the children who lay there, seemingly dead in their parents' arms.

Despite the situation, Sakido couldn't help but be taken aback by Shun's behavior. He seemed like a completely different person now, and though she would never admit it, she was slightly afraid of the Shun she was seeing now. Strange as it may be, the Shun she was looking at now seemed to remind her of a Demon that was on the verge of going berserk. "_B__ut then again__…_" she thought now that her mind returned home once again "_D__arius must have had the same look as well, or at least felt the same wa__y after seeing all the death that the war caused,_" she thought, turning to the people slaughtered in the street with a sad look in her eyes.

Thankfully, that feeling of dread vanished suddenly as Shun quickly recomposed himself and took a deep breath. When he turned back towards her, the look on his face had changed back to his usual kind smile albeit somber. "Come on, we'd better go see if anyone managed to stay on their feet. This miasma is poisonous, but it doesn't kill immediately, and it is possible to block it like our marks did earlier, so there should be "some" people who managed to hold out," he stated as he turned to the people once more in the street, thinking "The question is how long?"

"R-Right", Sakido just nodded, not sure what else to say…just as what he said registered to her. "_Wait! T__hese people were still alive!?_" she thought, subsiding her initial belief, as she looked around at the "remains" of those who had fallen, "_T__hat means we can still save them__,_" she thought with a small ounce of relief. However, as the two of them walked around the town, Sakido couldn't help but look sadly at the sights that they saw. All around them, the people that had been so full of life were now on the ground as though dead. While the fact that they were still breathing was proof that they were still alive, any idiot could see that that would not continue for much longer if something wasn't done about it, which left one thought in the back of her head "_W__e'll have to be quick about it__,_" she thought, rather surprised by this feeling of concern she suddenly felt for these people, especially since she'd been forced to repress such feelings for so long.

Shun didn't say anything as they continued to walk through the town almost numb to the fact of the catastrophe in front of him, but the seemingly calm façade he had carried an air of sterility to it, as if his whole body was devoid of emotion. The two of them walked a little further, and to their surprise, they found what looked like an expanding bubble of light that was already covering a good amount of the residential district (including the area where Shun's house was, as well as the nearby market district), which seemed to be growing by the minute.

"What is that?!" Sakido asked in surprise.

"That's…" Shun started, lost for words as he too wasn't sure what it was. Of course, he had a pretty good idea WHO was responsible for it. "Don't know what it is, but I think I know who made it" he grinned, before running towards the bubble.

"H-Hey! Wait" Sakido called out, but he had already entered the bubble. At this, Sakido could only sigh in annoyance, as Shun seemingly disregarded her personal safety. It had started as a few random instances, but over the last week, she had noticed that every now and then, Shun would do something that seemed to disregard everything but himself. In short, to her, he was damn inconsiderate, and he was showing it once again. That barrier was a shield of light, a very obvious holy spell, which would mean instant death should she enter it. Now, one might question why she felt this way, especially considering everything Shun's been doing for her. Sadly, the root of her problem lied in both of their pasts, as she's spent most of her life dealing with the horrible company she had in Hell. As a result, she tended to look at things more from the bad than the good, and right now, she was focusing only on the times when Shun was being 'inconsiderate', despite him never actually having any bad intentions. On the other hand, Shun had lived a life where he only depended on himself and no one else prior to becoming a Rebirth, and during that time that he isn't proud of, he never cared about anyone but himself. As a result, despite him having greatly improved during the short time (he genuinely does care for his allies and friends, and currently, he really does look out for Sakido's well being), he still had a tendency to regress at times, usually completely by accident. In short, Sakido was tied down by her old habits; while Shun's old habits just fed the flame.

Seeing that the there was no alternative way in, she was about to decide to stay there and wait for Shun to return, when the warmth from her chest started to grow in heat again. Taking a look, she saw her Rebirth mark was indeed glowing again, and a gentle feeling overcame her, filling her with reassurance, and compelling her to step through.

Despite the reassurance she felt, she still sighed and rolled her eyes in annoyance before she quickly followed him. As she neared the bubble, she braced herself for whatever might happen to her or be on the other side. However, when she touched the bubble, she easily went through, and to her shock she not only survived, but she felt nothing. No pain, no discomfort, just a feeling of pushing through something. Once she was through, the feeling that compelled her to step through changed to a comfortable feeling of praise, as though someone was congratulating her, and she couldn't help but smile at her effort only to feel all emotion wear off.

She paused and stared down at her hands for a moment before looking up at the now golden tinted sky... it was strange really, here was an entity no different than Gaia or Syndel that she had no association with or connection to, yet it was able to control her giving it complete and utter dominance over her life, control her when it wanted and demand her to sacrifice herself at a moment's notice to satisfy its whims, no different from her other 'job' if you could call it that, and yet it didn't seem like it wanted to harm her, or at least she thought it didn't. Despite having control of her body like it had just now, it was strange really as the thought of such a being existing was quite foreign to her, but all the more she thought of Darius again, which was rather odd that she thought so much of him at all lately. "_I must be home sick__,_" she thought as she held her head as that was probably the fifteenth time that thought had crossed her mind today…along with the migraine.

Within the bubble, she saw that the miasma hadn't gone through, evident by the lack of oppressive feel in the air, nor the tell-tale scent of poison that had been heavy in the miasma. Looking further, she noticed Shun talking to the same wizard she had met earlier, Merlin. Walking towards them, she was able to hear part of their conversation.

"There's gotta be a way to clear up this miasma! If we don't do anything-" she heard Shun practically shouted in frustration as she got closer.

"I'm very sorry Shun, but Maleficent has outdone herself this time. We've tried almost everything we can do without dropping these protective bubbles we've managed to set up" Merlin explained with an apologetic tone.

"But you just told me that even though most of the people managed to get into these bubbles…" Shun fumbled with his words, "You said it yourself that it won't be long before these bubbles collapse! If we don't do something soon, we might as well hand over Radiant Garden on a silver platter!" Shun yelled in frustration, very much agitated by the situation as he HATED being powerless to stop the bad guys, ESPECIALLY when the bad guy in question was Maleficent.

"What's wrong?" Sakido asked once she was close enough.

"Merlin was just telling me that the miasma covering Radiant Garden can't be dispelled, at least not without doing something that would bring down these protective bubbles, and even then he says there's no guarantee it will work, so if this doesn't work, then aside from the two of us, anyone who hasn't been exposed to the miasma, or anyone who has been exposed but brought into this bubble…" he continuously fumbled his words. "Let's just say it would be hazardous for their health," Shun sighed. "In a nut shell, he's basically saying that right now, Radiant Garden is screwed," he deadpanned, before turning back towards Merlin. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do? Miasma is still miasma, no matter how strong it is. There's always a way to get rid of it."

"Why don't you use a wind spell? It's just fog isn't it?" Sakido asked, as to her, a simple fog, even if it was poisonous, should easily be blown away.

"That's a good suggestion, but miasma isn't like regular fog. If anything, it's more like..." he thought about it for a moment, looking for a proper way to explain it, as being from a world of logic and science, Shun wasn't really a big believer of magic, and even though he had come to admit that it does exist, he still would prefer a more logical way of thinking any day. Looking for the right word, he finally picked one. "Like... a curse!" he pointed, "Which is why it lingers at any spot it was unleashed, so we can't just blow it away," Shun explained, before mentally adding, "_Besides, we'd need nothing short of a Black Hole to have the force to get rid of this stuff, and that would destroy the city along with it__,_" he shuddered at that.

"An apt explanation, Shun," Merlin nodded, before turning to Sakido. "Yes, that is true. The evil will behind the miasma is what directs it," Merlin sighed as he adopted a thinking pose. "If only we could make the evil will itself disappear, then the miasma would drift away like a regular fog. Maybe if we could purify it..."

Shun sat thinking before he slowly looked up with realization dawning his face "_Wait..._" he thought before blurting out, "Did you say purify?!" Surprising them.

"Yes, I believe he did" Sakido deadpanned whilst rubbing her ears. Shun's exclamation was more like a shout, which reminded her of when Death had told Rhea that she couldn't be reincarnated. "Why would that be important?" she asked now thoroughly annoyed, wondering why Shun had to be so inconsiderate at times, and why she had to be stuck with him.

"I agree. To purify this much miasma, we'd need nothing... short... of..." Merlin started to say as realization dawned on his face. "Of course!"

Shun nodded in agreement. "That's right. We need HER..." Shun said with a cryptic smile, much to Sakido's annoyance, as she was the only one who had no idea what they were talking about, and she hated that. She hated it when people kept secrets, especially since she had enough of that while in Hell, thanks in no small part to her brother and his 'friends', it was that thought that set her off. "Who are you talking about?! Make sense!" she growled exasperatedly in annoyance. "Who is this person you say can dispel the miasma!?" she demanded.

"I'll explain later," Shun quickly said as he quickly opened another portal. However, the moment he put his hand through, green flames suddenly sprang to life, blocking the portal and singeing his left arm, which thankfully, was his cybernetic arm. "Gah!" he shouted in alarm as he pulled his arm out on reflex shaking it profusely, even though his arm had taken no damage from the flames. he turned to Merlin "I thought Radiant Garden was supposed to be one of the more well protected worlds?! How in the world did she manage to make a barrier THIS strong!"

"Hm... that is a predicament," Merlin said with genuine curiosity, worried at what this could mean. "Not to worry, I know just the spell for this. It won't be able to open this portal, but what it does will allow a Gummi Ship to get through to the Lanes Between," Merlin said, disregarding his suspicion for the time being.

"That would be good." Shun nodded. " Do you need us to escort you to the Gummi Hangar, or can you prep the spell for me to carry?"

"Oh that's fine. I'll have the spell prepared for you shortly" Merlin nodded before going back into his house to get to work.

Sakido waited patiently for the door to close before turning to Shun. "Now that he's gone, are you planning on telling me who 'she' is?" Sakido asked impatiently.

"Right. Sorry about that" Shun nodded apologetically, before pulling out what looked like a glass brick from his pocket.

Sakido stood there for a moment, perplexed as she had never seen a cell phone before, she was even more surprised when upon switching it on, a holographic projection appeared before her, displaying a picture of a young woman with flowing blue hair (which reminded her of the oceans surrounding Destiny Islands).

Shun remained silent as Sakido took the device with shaking hands, perplexed, shocked, mind blown, and yet fearful of breaking the device as she had never seen such a marvel before, she twisted it around and found the image always remained right side up and facing her no matter what, as the display showed the woman before her fully animated, even if it was by simply blinking over and over again, wondering why they needed to search for somebody who was quite clearly already there. So curious she was, that when Sakido tried to wrap her hands around the woman she was dumb founded to find it was just an image her hands could cut right through before her.

As she lifted it into the air, and continued to examine it, Shun couldn't help but think how cute the sight before him was, as she seemed so curious and confused by the prospect of a hologram, and was examining it in a way much like a child with a new toy. "_This never gets old,_" he thought with a mental snicker, while looking away and smiling at the amusing display.

Sakido, after examining the device for a few moments, yet not knowing what to do with it, finally decided to take a good look at the person depicted, from the lightly tanned skin to the emerald green eyes that seemed to hold an immense warmth in them, and surprisingly enough, a Rebirth Mark on her right cheek.

Sakido couldn't help but swear to herself that this had to be a real person. After all, the picture was just too damn clear and life-like to be anything but a real person. It was at this point that Shun decided to drop the bomb shell.

"That's just a portrait you know," he stated, positively amused at what he was seeing, and even more so at the reaction he got.

"A portrait?" she murmured…right before the word sunk in. "Wait, you mean that this is just a picture?!" She gasped, her eyes going wide while her muzzle hung open in disbelief.

"That's right. More specifically, it's what we call a hologram," he said as he took the device from her hands. "Anyway, this is who we need to find. Her name is Umi. Umi Soyokaze, and as you can clearly see..." he pointed to her cheek "She's a Rebirth, like you and me."

Sakido paused for a moment as she just stared at Shun and the 'picture' he had before shaking herself back to reality. "So…What's so special about her? She…she doesn't seem like much," she asked, honestly curious, but still distracted by the moving imagery. If anything, this…Umi, didn't seem like the type that would become a Rebirth, yet the mark was undeniable.

Shun just chuckled at her reaction. "You're not the first person to say that, and you won't be the last," he said. "While it's true that as a Rebirth, Umi has only been a Rebirth for about 5 months, her special abilities put her on a higher level than the average Rebirth that's only been active for a few days like you," Shun continued. "Umi here was a Miko, a Shrine Maiden or Priestess in life. Mikos are renowned for their ability to purify corrupt beings, and Umi was one of the best in life, and she still retains her power as a Miko today, only now her powers have been amplified thanks to becoming a Rebirth," he stated before going on. "This allows her to purify any evil will she encounters, and considering what's controlling this miasma, she's perfect for the job."

Sakido thought about it for a moment, and while it made sense, there was one thing that was bugging her about it, outside of the fact a "picture" was moving. "...Purification…it almost sounds like a holy spell," she commented, a little hesitantly, as she was a little apprehensive of the idea of dealing with someone who could perform something akin to a Holy Spell, mostly due to the circumstances of her initial death.

"Well…I guess you could look at it that way. If anything, it's actually quite fitting considering her title," Shun noted.

"Her title? You mean like the title Maleficent called you?" Sakido asked.

"Yes…exactly…like that," Shun stated, mumbling out the last of his words, looking away in annoyance, while Sakido could have sworn she saw several veins appear along his head at mention of his 'title'. "It's fitting since the title a lot of people call her is 'Angel of the Sea'," Shun commented…until he noticed her flinch slightly. "-Of course, if you're worried about her turning on you since you're a Demon and you use Darkness, don't worry," he quickly said. "First of all, her purification works by purifying EVIL, not darkness, so even if she were to use it on you, there probably wouldn't be much of an effect, since you're not exactly "evil". Besides, Umi's the kind of girl who'd be willing to get to know someone before judging them. If anything, the day she attacks someone based on just how they look, or based on what they are, would probably be the day Hell... freezes over," he said, laughing at the last part. "And for the record, she earned her title for her gentle and caring personality, which fits the bill of what most people think on how an Angel acts. As far as I, or anyone else knows, Umi is a human."

Sakido looked at him strangely. "_Darkness…evil…what the hell is the difference? They're the same thing…right?_" she thought, but ultimately shrugged it off, deciding that she would trust his judgment for now. "Alright. I suppose I'll take your word for it…" she sighed. "Though you seem to know her well enough. Why is that?" she asked.

"Two reasons really. First of all, like you, I mentored her for a while back when she first became a Rebirth, so I know her well enough," Shun started

Hearing this, Sakido rolled her eyes. "_Did__ she also notice you were an inconsiderate ass?_" She thought as she rolled her eyes, but Shun didn't notice, as he was busy putting his UniT away.

"Second, and more importantly, even when I was done mentoring her, our paths crossed many times, so much so that we ended up forming a party, so I've known her for... a while now actually," Shun continued explaining.

"Party?" Sakido asked, looking at him strangely again.

"It's another way of saying team," Shun deadpanned. "Some people thought the term 'team' was too generic or boring and decided to change the word to 'party', and lo and behold, the term actually stuck," he explained with a sigh. Just as he was done saying that, Merlin came out of his house carrying a glowing card and a block.

"Here, I have finished preparing the spell. Once you get to the Gummi Ship Hangar, cast the spell on the Gummi Block and install it into the ship," Merlin said as he gave Shun the two items.

"Alright. Thanks Merlin," Shun nodded before turning towards Sakido and saying, "Come on, let's hurry! It'll be faster if we fly," before he summoned his Aero Slider from another ripple and took off.

"Right!" Sakido nodded, before she too took to the sky.

-break-

"Follow me! We need to get to the Gummi Hangar, ASAP!" Shun said as he took the lead, with Sakido following close by. The two of them had left the bubble and were once again in the miasma filled sky. Thankfully, their Rebirth Marks were protecting them from the miasma, evident by the fact that the marks were glowing.

"About that, what's a Gummi Ship? You two mentioned it a few times, but never really explained it," Sakido asked as she flew next to him.

"Oh yeah, that's right," Shun realized. "I can't go into details since I don't really know them either, but in a nutshell, a Gummi Ship is a vessel/ship made out of a special material called Gummi Blocks that is used to travel the worlds. Though the ships have quickly become obsolete recently, thanks to most people preferring to just warp from world to world using portal systems, they're still in use mostly for exploration purposes when searching for new worlds, or when portals can't be used, such as right now," Shun explained to her.

Sakido nodded in understanding. It made sense to her, since while using a portal would be faster, it was always good to have a backup in case the main method didn't work, and that way of thinking was paying off right now. Everything seemed to be going alright so far, yet why did she have this nagging feeling at the back of her mind that something wasn't right? In fact, she could almost say that it felt like they were being watched…

Sakido stopped in mid air her, instincts telling her to turn around.

Shun took notice and stopped to ask, "What's wrong?"

Sakido just wiggled her ears, trying to see or hear anything strange. Something wasn't right, the sound of wind she had heard seemed to stop blowing and the forces that had rushed against her face while flying stopped as well, as if friction itself ceased to exist, she turned around to see clouds off in the distance. When she looked closely, she noticed that the movement of the clouds just beyond the miasma seemed to move in snake like tendrils across the planes, they only paused slightly, staring back at sakido before rising up suddenly then plunging down into the earth, disappearing, she just hovered there confused by what she had just seen. "Hmm... I guess it was noth-" she was about to say as she turned around, just as Shun's eyes widened, and the first thing she saw was Shun lunging at her. "What are you-!?"

"Look out!" Shun shouted as he grabbed her (not an easy feat, considering their size difference), and promptly triggered the jets on his Aero Slider, shooting off at blinding speed, just as loud boom rang out before they were dodging a sudden onslaught of lightning bolts. Shun gritted his teeth as he pushed his Aero Slider into overdrive, narrowly dodging the lightning bolts, before suddenly making a sharp turn to avoid a bolt of lightning that appeared right in front of them. Unfortunately, this maneuver had an extremely unwanted side-effect.

When Shun did the sharp turn, Sakido was pushed back EXTREMELY hard against Shun's metal arm, the cold hard metal pushing her hard at an angle, followed by an excruciating pain as she felt her back pop and dislocate, scaring her half to death.

More lightning bolts flashed through the sky, but now they were noticeably more focused on Shun and his Aero Slider. Seeing this, Shun, not realizing the injury he had unintentionally inflicted on Sakido, decided that he'd use himself as a diversion while giving Sakido a chance to get out of the way.

With a savage twist and a fling, Sakido found herself twirling in mid-air, out of control. She still felt her bones pop as she tumbled through the air, the pain so excruciating, she almost felt like she could just pass out at any moment. Despite that, she still managed to catch a sight of Shun, and that was when she noticed that something HUGE was now chasing after him. Once it registered in her mind what was going on, she struggled to fight through the pain coursing through her body, but it proved much harder than she thought, as her back felt like it had been broken again, split like it had with the holy arrow. She managed to stabilize her descent and rush back up toward the sudden fight at hand and quickly tried to catch up to the two, hoping the pain would subside along the way.

In the meantime, Shun had been keeping the creature's attention whilst getting a good look at the fight on his hands. Seeing the crest on the creature's chin he quickly established this thing was a Heartless, but it wasn't like any Heartless he had seen before. It was a large, blue dragon-like Heartless with a long, curled tail and twisted, yellow spikes lining its back. Its wings were actually long, five-fingered hands with ornate webbing between the fingers. Each finger sported a short, white claw and the webbing was decorated by a swirling pattern. The Heartless's underside was lined by two rows of three gold cymbals. Its lower jaw was large, jagged, and yellow, while its upper jaw was blue, and on its head were two bent, red horns. The Heartless roared like the beast it was, before lunging towards Shun with its teeth bared, lighting dancing all around the Heartless.

Diving left and right to dodge the incoming attacks, Shun quickly got out his UniT and accessed a scanner function: "The Heartless Encyclopedia", only to find his UniT jammed by a static screen. "_Great…just perfect…_" he thought seeing the creature unleash more lightning bolts, forcing him to dodge with the lightning just BARELY missing him. "_Damn it! I can't scan this thing with all that lightning causing all this interference!_" He thought, before summoning another ripple and plunging his left hand through, pulling out a Gatling gun. "Oh well, guess I'll just have to hope for the best!" he said as he started to unload as many bullets into the creature as humanly possible, not only to damage it, but to hopefully also find its weak point and exploit it. However, to his dismay he found that the creature had something of a resistance to his attacks, as bullet after bullet hit its mark only to ricochet off harmlessly in another direction. Unfortunately, he was so focused on the target in front of him that he never noticed exactly where the ricocheting bullets were going.

Sakido was pissed. How pissed? Enough that she was seriously considering mutilating Shun's face when she had the chance. She had just been trying to fly as quickly as she could to help despite the pain she was in, and the next thing she knew, she found herself having to dodge the occasional rounds of bullets that threatened to tear her in half should it hit her. "Hey!" she yelled hoping to catch his attention, getting angrier by the minute. "Stop shooting! You're going to kill me at this rate!"

Hearing her, Shun quickly stopped his wild firing. "Great! Just perfect!" he growled exasperatedly as he continued to dodge lightning attacks whilst aiming aim for every point he could aim for, using Sakido's voice to judge where she was and avoid accidentally hitting her, just as Sakido was catching up. Emptying his Gatling gun to its final rounds only to find not a single bullet made its mark and quickly found the creature catching up to him. Getting desperate, he chucked the heavy weapon at the Heartless, hoping to hit the creature's eye, only to find the heavy machine gun phase harmlessly through its face and towards the ground below, too shocked to even remember to send the weapon back to his storage.

He was so shocked at what he just saw, that he wasn't paying attention as the beast quickly loomed over him diving down, mouth wide open and ready to retract. Looking around to dodge he found himself cornered, to either side of a valley wall, above him the monsters jaw and below solid earth. The creature had out maneuvered him as he realized he had drifted into a canyon, perfect for the creature to corner him. "_Oh snap! Don't chew! Don't chew!_" Shun mentally panicked, hoping to at least get a swift end.

Just as the Heartless was upon him, its eyes widened as a sudden flash of lightning came from behind it. Sensing the immanent attack, the creature burst into smoke as the arc of a massive thunderbolt attempted to split it in half, before the creature traveled up the side of the mountain in a mass of clouds before disappearing over the canyon horizon.

"That…was too close…" Shun sighed before looking back towards the source of the thunderbolt. What he found was Sakido with a rather dumb struck expression on his face, impressed with herself by how much energy she managed to harness. Shun on the other hand, having got over the near brush with death, was more concerned with the way the creature managed to move as he had never seen anything like it. "_Just what is this thing? I've never heard of a Heartless with this kind of ability. Could it be a new species?_" he thought as the clouds now swirled around slightly above the canyon walls, rapidly building up a thunderstorm within them, or so it seemed.

As Sakido caught up with Shun, the clouds returned to cut her off just before she could rejoin him, they took the shape of tendrils once more, before lashing out at her in succession, lightning dancing along the tips. To make matters worse, the tentacles spread out into spikes sending off a lethal barrage of lightning pillars, destroying the canyon around them. Sakido spun and twirled as she seemed to catch almost every one of the creatures movements, being rather impressed by herself at how she was dodging lightning about as fast as it struck, which was a feat she could never have accomplished as a regular demon. Too bad the rapid spinning wasn't helping her situation as the pain built in her spine. "_Damn it, Shun!__You just had to go and be a __damned hero didn't you?_" she thought, before she heard Shun yell, "LOOK OUT!" as she realized her twirling lead to an unexpected result. The canyon they were in began to collapse as the continuous barrage and subsequent ruckus of thunder and lightning tore through the canyon walls and shattered the mountains that covered them. The mass quickly reassembled into the dragon it once was and quickly sped away, clearing a path for Sakido.

Shun slowed down despite the danger of stones coming down around them. "SAKIDO!" he yelled with his hand extended as she took notice and rushed ahead, all the while continuously dodging stone after stone, with each getting bigger and nastier as time went on. Twisting herself, she suddenly realized that the creature had positioned itself at the top of the canyon walls, allowing it to fire more and more lightning bolts, or balls, as each one hitting the canyon walls which burst into a haze of static shattering more stone and disintegrating the mountain side. As she reached out her hand, a sudden pain shot through her back as she felt her vertebrae on the weakest point of her spine pop hard, causing her to miss Shun by mere inches. Sakido could only drift by helplessly into the canyon below as she BARELY managed to stay in the air, the pain nearly paralyzing her, while the ache she felt was so bad she wanted to puke. Acting quickly, Shun quickly swooped down to catch the falling wind demon and loop his artificial arm around her waist only to savagely pull up before hitting the ground and speeding away just as a mass of boulders fell on the spot they had just been. "_Gotta find cover! Neither of us are in a condition to keep fighting right now!_" Shun thought as he turned sharply into a nearby crevice in order to take cover from the hail of stone.

-break-

As the dust amassed in the canyon, Maleficent watched through the miasma as the helpless Rebirths succumbed to her new found power, Re-write, the power to recreate the world. Smiling at her handy work, she turned towards the two women, scientists by the looks of them, standing behind her. "Hmph-hm-hm, this power…" she stated going wide eyed with glee "This power is AMAZING!" she continued to laugh as the two scientists behind her observed her reactions to the crystal in her hands. The crystal was a translucent black sphere with what looked like a glowing white cube at the core of the crystal. "I take it the Hollow Drive is to your liking?" one of them, the shorter woman, seemingly no older than her mid-teens, with long blonde hair which flowed freely, pale skin, and dark blue eyes asked in a pleasant tone, but despite that, her face was expressionless.

"Oh yes!" Maleficent said, holding up the crystal. "This power is unfathomable!" Maleficent smiled, before the smile turned into a glare. "Didn't you see what I could do with just one Storm Rider you little fool!?" The girl just smiled a fake smile despite taking offense to the scathing remark. "I did," the girl said simply with a rather flat tone "And we were impressed. Your efforts to perfect the re-creation of the Unwritten definitely show through your Heartless."

Maleficent, catching the air of sterility around this 'lesser woman's' words, stared at her with a rather amused but unpleasant expression. "_How brave of her to stand up against the Mistress of All Evil,_" Maleficent mentally mused, before a cruel smirk appeared on her face. "... tell me miss?" she asked .

"Night. Maria Night" the girl now identified as Maria spoke up, her voice never loosing the calm and pleasant tone.

"Of course. Tell me Ms. Night, do you have a death wish?" Maleficent said with an even tone.

Maria stared back stock still, not because she was frightened by this green skinned hag, but because she hated it when someone talked down on her. However, she couldn't risk blowing their cover. Not now when they were so close to their goal. "_I'll torture this sea skinned hag when i have the chance__,_" she thought before responding, "No, miss Malefice-"

*BOOM!* Maleficent struck out with a green lightning bolt from her staff, sending the girl tumbling back. "It's MISTRESS Maleficent to you, you puny neophyte! Now, SAY IT AGAIN!" she glared down at Maria with her staff in hand and poised to attack.

"Yeh-yes mistress," Maria chocked out as she held her side as she struggled to get up. "_You will pay dearly for that you hag! Just you wait. Once we no longer need you…_" Maria mentally seethed. "No, miss-" she stumbled on her words nearly repeating her mistake. "No mistress Maleficent, I do-don't" she struggled, "_I__'ll rip out your __tongue__ and kill you, you __impudent hag__!_" Maria thought, the grit of her teeth from the pain disguising the grit of anger on her face.

"Very good, 'miss' Night," Maleficent said as to flaunt her superiority, completely unaware as Maria's glare hardened at maleficent as the witch turned from the scientist. "Then i advise you to keep your emotions in check whilst around me," she said while toying with the orb of her staff. "You wouldn't want to get on my bad side."

"If I may?" the other scientist, the woman seemingly in her early to mid twenties with lightly tanned skin, dark purple eyes, and purple hair which was styled into a pony tail, spoke up.

"And you are?" Maleficent asked, turning to the woman beside Maria.

"Sephora White," the scientist, now identified as Sephora, answered. "I believe I should take Maria here down to the infirmary."

"And on who's authority are you to carry out such an order?" Maleficent asked with a cold look.

"If you pardon me for being so brave mistress, my own." Maleficent responded to Sephora's comment with the same unpleasant stare from before, this time unamused. "Maria and I are some of the top scientists chosen to assist you with your unraveling of the Hollow Drive," Sephora said, pointing to the dark crystal still held by Maleficent. "It would be a shame to waste such a brilliant mind if we left her to-"

"Denied," Maleficent responded in a darker tone "If she dies, then she dies. After all, all of you are a dime a dozen and can be easily replaced. Besides, need i remind you, YOU are the ones who came to ME, begging me to unravel your precious 'Hollow Drive'. How brilliant could such a mind be if it were wasted on this wench?" Maria's blood boiled when she heard this. "If anything she deserves to die just like the rest of you."

Sephora gulped, worried that Maria may lose her mind at this point and blow their cover. While she knew that Maria wasn't the most expressive person despite her SEEMINGLY pleasant appearance (heck, sometimes she wondered if Maria even HAD real emotions), the fact was that even Maria would only take so much before lashing out, and Maleficent was already dangerously close to that point. Unknown to Maleficent, these 'scientists', were ordered to observe her progress on researching the Hollow Drive, and help them re-create the creatures known as "The Unwritten", a breed of monsters their original predecessors were able to create, yet the knowledge of how to do so had been lost with their predecessors' demise. As such, they were tasked with taking in the results in order to access the white cube core within the crystal so their "organization" could access its ability's, primarily the power of Re-write that Maleficent had displayed surprisingly great mastery over despite not being like them.

"Y-yes mistress," Sephora said as she turned to escort Maria to the wall, though both of them knew that if they had been out of the room, then either Maria or Sephora could use her 'special ability' to heal themselves, but as it were sadly, the mission came first, so she would just have to suffer the wound inflicted upon her. While it wasn't like she could truely die anyway, the fact remained that it still hurt.

Maria was livid, and that was something she RARELY felt. Despite that, Maleficent had actually managed to push her to that point, as the intent to kill-no-TORTURE her to death, was almost uncontrollable in her eyes. Turning to Sephora, she mouthed, "Toxin. When are we going to be rid of this witch? How long before I can tear her apart and savor her pain?" she silently asked, a malicious and psychotic look creeping into her features.

Sephora, or rather, Toxin shook her head, though she could understand her PERFECTLY. She then mouthed back, "Patience Nightmare. She hasn't accessed what we wanted yet, not to mention our leader still has a few uses for her, but I promise you, once Leader has no use for her, you can kill her, maime her, drive her to the depths of despair, do as you like."

With that response, Maria, or rather Nightmare turned to Maleficent with malicious intent and smiled sadistically behind maleficent. "_Good,_" she thought. "_Once you've outlived your usefulness, I'll show you pain, suffering, and misery of the likes you could only imagine, and once I've had my fill, I'll erase…no, I'll Re-write you into an existence more fitting for you, HAG!_"

-Break-

Back on the battlefield, Shun had taken cover in the smaller crevices as the dragon Heartless, the Storm Rider, flew about the canyon walls looking for them.

"_It must know we're still here,_" he thought as he held up his UniT to scan, only to receive more static. "Does it have some kind of shield? If so, then how in the world did Maleficent manage to create a shield as strong as this?" he muttered as he shook his phone, hit it, shook it, then hit it again. "Well, I guess we won't know until you're out of range of that thing" he muttered to his UniT.

"Shun- can- you get- over here... and help me!?" Sakido winced at each word as she tried to speak, the pain in her back made it hard to sit and harder to breath. The pain carried over to her sternum, making her need to hurl, and with every word spoken, even more so. "By the way," she said rather maliciously. "Thanks, for being a damned hero!" she winced wreching at the end greatly. "Because of y-ou…!" she paused to keep her stomach in check, this was not the best time for this. "Ugh! I feel like I'm going to be sick…or die," she said lowly.

Shun, seeing the sorry state he had unintentionally put her in, looked away, hiding the sad and pained look he had. "_Again…Again I've hurt someone that I wasn't supposed to hurt, and this time it wasn't a bystander, it was someone I had been trying to protect…_" he thought dejectedly as the shame he had carried for the last 7 years came down on him again. He felt like digging a hole and burying himself in it right now. "Look…I'm really sorry I-"

"Sorry?! You nearly broke my spine and all you can say is you're sorry?!" Sakido nearly shrieked in rage as she stood up only to feel her spine pop hard which brought tears to her eyes and made her stumble forward face first into the ground.

"Sakido are you okay?!" Shun rushed over to help her up. It was his fault…his rash action had hurt her.

"NO! NO I AM NOT OKAY!" she swiped her claws at him grazing him on the cheek.

"Ow, hey!" he said grabbing his slightly bleeding scars. Even if he felt like he deserved something like that, the fact remained that he was TRYING to HELP her. "You should think about who you're striking because that hurt!"

"GOOD!" she shouted rather lividly. "And how dare you tell me to think about my actions when you never consider your own you bastard!" this yelling wasn't helping her case, but she didn't care right now as frankly, she wasn't thinking in a rational state of mind. "Taking me to a place I didn't want to be, putting me in the middle of a strange crowd, asking me to fight, making me into a Rebirth and... and..." her stomach could hardly take it any more. "I think I'm going to be sick," she said again lowly, lying face first upon the ground once more, at least this lessened her stomach's knots.

"_She's delirious…_" Shun thought, pushing aside his guilt for the moment, as Sakido's condition was more important than his self-loathing. He knew that the situation must be getting to her, since the fact remained that she was the one that wanted to see the other worlds, and he most certainly did NOT force her to fight, nor did he turn her into a Rebirth. "_Maybe__ this is just a relapse like at the fountain__,_" he thought deducing that the stress of the situation must be weighing heavily on her with all the new places, new faces, new technology that she didn't know was technology, or was even possible, so it wasn't all that much of a surprise that she'd be freaking out again and then there's this mess with Maleficent and these Heartless as well as that thing outside was all probably getting to her. He could sympathize because he felt that way too when he first became a Rebirth, and he knew that all his friends, including Umi, were no exceptions to this strangeness as well, and THEY had some kind of understanding to the possibility that there were other worlds. But Sakido? She didn't even know there was a universe outside of the world she came from and her inability to adapt was what was holding her down.

Shun sighed through his nose. Normally, he'd let her vent it out of her, but considering the situation, he had to deal with this now, or Radiant Garden would fall into Maleficent's hands…and that was unacceptable. "Look…I'm sorry for hurting you. You're right, I shouldn't have acted so brashly and I should have given you more of a heads up, but it was either I did that, or you'd have been barbequed alive. I did what I did because I was trying to save you from being harmed."

"_F__unny how that seemed to back fire__,_" she thought sardonically.

"Look, if it makes you feel any better I can fix you," Shun said, since among the many injuries that Rebirths suffered, dislocations were fairly common.

Sakido looked at him rather hopefully, before he proceeded to pick her up and layed her stomach first on his lap. He was careful to treat her as gently as possible, so as to avoid hurting her anymore, so much so that she actually blushed when he gently ran his finger over her back, looking for the dislocation, and she thought again of Darius, a small part of her mind actually comparing the two men.

As Shun ran his fingers over her back, he winced slightly when he found the spot. "Okay Sakido, the good news is that I can fix you relatively easily…" he started, causing her to raise her head, since she felt a 'but' coming. "The bad news is…it's gonna hurt," he sighed, before raising his metal hand, causing Sakido's eyes to widened and she started squirming. "Hold still Sakido. If you don't, then I risk making your back WORSE," he said sternly, and this made her stop. "Alright Sakido, just take it easy, calm down and brace yourself. I promise this will only hurt for a second. On 3…" he said in a soothing tone, which she nodded.

"1…" she took a deep breath.

"2…" she closed her eyes and braced herself.

"3!" the hand came down.

*CRACK!* dogs everywhere went deaf as Sakido screamed at the top of her lungs at the impact, which realigned her spine and fixed her need to hurl. Too bad it came at Shun's expense…

-Break-

Maleficent, having heard the blood curdling scream through the haze, suddenly placed the Storm Rider to one side of the mountain side near the largest crevice. She knew this brief reprieve would give them time to plan, so she put her own plans into action. After having placed the storm rider down she raised her hand with the Hollow Drive, and willed the power of Re-write on the Heartless once more, splitting it in half, separating its body from its shadow whilst connecting it to her will. With that done, she sat in wait with a cunning smile. "Let's see what you think of this, Shun!"

-Break-

"Ow…Was that really necessary?" Shun moaned, abandoning any attempts to look tough as he grasped the claw marks on his face.

Sakido just huffed in annoyance.

"Look…I DID say it was going to hurt, and while I would have liked to give you a less painful treatment, I have neither the equipment, nor the supplies to do it. I left all of those at home," he explained whilst wincing at the pain. "_Damn, for someone who looks so dainty, she sure packs a punch…then again; she IS a Demon…_" he thought. "Besides I think it would be better if Merlin had them lest the Heartless do find a way inside of those shields," he continued, rubbing his face one more time, feeling the wounds start to heal as the Rebirth's natural healing abilities kicked in, before getting up. "Anyway the hangar isn't that far now. Matter of fact, it should be past these canyons." Sakido turned back at an angle to look at him; he continued "I have plenty of medical supplies there, though I didn't plan on Maleficent attacking us with... that," he pointed out into the canyon where the dragon was.

"What, so you thought she'd be attacking us at this…hangar instead?" she asked suppressing the urge to ask any more questions.

"Exactly. And with heartless in tow at that," Shun stated. "The thing is, she's never really been this aggressive or intelligent. Usually what you saw back in the Outer Gardens is all she would carry with her, since her arrogance always clouded her judgment, to the point of conceit," Shun explained.

"…and this is different how?" Sakido asked genuinely curious, she's never seen a human who carried such power with them before. Even Angels with their pendants couldn't match the power this…Maleficent held to the point it seemed as though she were a god, or a Rebirth herself.

Shun turned from his thinking position to focus on Sakido. "It's different because she's never had this much power about her. Even surviving my Final Salvo at point blank range should have at least killed her," he said with a grave expression on his face.

Sakido had to do a double take, since there was no way she had heard that one right. "Y-you mean she's…died, like before?" The only reply she got was Shun nodding. The response blew her mind. That was impossible! There was no way something like that could have died then just come back to life... could there?

Then again she did just come back from the dead a week ago, so...

"She's died many times already in the past, yet somehow she keeps on returning every time and nobody knows how she does it," Shun shrugged helplessly. "Truth be told she's always called herself the Mistress of All Evil, and though I'd like to think that it's just her feeding her oversized ego, considering how she just doesn't know when to stay dead, I'm inclined to say i believe it."

Sakido paused at that, analyzing that sentence and the way he worded it, before she couldn't help but ask, "You…don't believe in magic I take it?"

"Well…I'm not saying it doesn't exist," Shun mused whilst scratching his chin, before putting his hand behind the back of his head. "It's just that where I come from, magic doesn't exist, and added by the fact that I always did prefer a logical explanation-I mean, I know not everything can be explained through logic, but still…"

Sakido quickly stopped him, not interested in hearing a long explanation. "Okay, I get it. You're basically an alchemist," she sighed. All of this was giving her a headache, and the fact she barely understood any of it only made it worse. She made a mental note that the next chance she got; she'd find a library and finally get a proper explanation for some of this stuff. "So…now what?" she paused at the sight of Shun whipping out his glass brick again.

"That depends. Are you feeling better?" he asked.

"Actually…yeah, I feel fine," she nodded as she examined herself. While Shun's little 'treatment' had hurt a lot, she just realized how effective it had been.

"Good," he said as he tossed her the device, which Sakido caught, albeit with a somewhat confused look. "Since you're feeling better, I need you to help scan that thing."

"Hm? What are you planning?" Sakido asked, knowing that the only reason why he would just give her something like this, especially when he knew she didn't know how to use it, was because it was part of some plan he had.

"I've set my UniT (Universal Terminal) to scanner mode. I need you to keep track of the Heartless while I distract it. Make sure you keep the camera locked on the Heartless so we can find a weak point," Shun ordered, surprising her.

"Wait, wouldn't it be better if you scanned for a weak point? After all, I'm faster than that slider of yours, and you know how to operate this thing better than I do," Sakido argued, but Shun just shook his head.

"That's exactly why I want you to do this," Shun said, before motioning towards one of the jets on his Aero Slider. "Look at my Aero Slider."

Looking towards where he was pointing, she noticed that the jets attached to Shun's Aero Slider were sparking with electricity, as well as a few sparks coming out from the top. "Those attacks that hit us did more than just hurt us. My board's been damaged pretty badly, so for all I know, it might just go kaput any minute now," Shun explained.

"But shouldn't that be even more reason for you to stay behind?" Sakido asked in surprise. To her, it was as though Shun was trying to get himself killed.

"No, it's BECAUSE my board might not last for much longer that I should be the bait. On the off chance that the bait does get hit, that Heartless will no doubt go for the other one, and if that happens, I'd rather it not be the one who may just fall out of the sky at any moment, namely me," Shun explained, before a small smile appeared on his face. "Also, if the bait were to be hit and end up falling out of the sky, I'd rather it not be you, since I can't guarantee my board won't go kaput when I catch you. At least this way, both of us won't have to worry too much about making it out of this in one piece…provided it all goes well," he chuckled as he turned to the enterance.

"But Shun…!" Sakido was about to protest, but he stopped her by holding up his hand, telling her to keep quiet.

"Don't worry. I'm sure it'll be fine. Besides, we're comrades, and I trust that you'll be there if I need you," he said, before he quickly turned to face her, revealing a kind smile on his face. "After all, how can I expect you to trust me if I don't trust you?" he added with a reassuring smile.

Sakido didn't know what to say to that, while it was true he did hit her, well…he did a lot of things she didn't like, but regardless, despite what he had done to her he had always made up for it, and to be honest, she was grateful for what he had been doing for her all this time.

Walking past her, Shun grabbed his board and was ready to head out before Sakido had the urge to ask him something important. "Wait! What exactly do you want me to do with this? Doesn't it…not work?"

Shun looked at her and thought for a moment "Not exactly. You see, that thing is made primarily of metal and machines in my world also work with electricity," he explained. "Devices like that wouldn't work so closely to electrical sources due to the fact that some components need a very specific amount of electricity to work," she listened closely since this was the first in depth explanation she'd ever gotten from Shun "The problem is, when to much flows into these area's, the circuits, you could say the organs, of the device can't work properly, and the device losses its functionality."

"So... its like its being fed food. But in this case, the device is being overfed?" Sakido asked rather uncertain of herself.

"That's…actually a very accurate analogy," Shun nodded, causing Sakido to gain a rather proud look for actually figuring out what he was saying. "That's why you need to keep that thing as far away from that...thing as possible."

"_So we just have to keep this thing away from that Heartless. Sounds simple enough,_" she thought.

"All you need to do is hold that button there," Shun continued as he pointed to a large button on the side of the UniT. "And aim it at whatever you wish to learn about."

Sakido looked rather wide eyed at the side of the phone, "_I__ can learn anything with this?__ That's incredible…_" she thought to herself. "So where do you want me to go?" she asked.

"Anywhere until that screen displays a blue background," he said pointing to the area Sakido needed to pay attention to, then he added, "Actually…on second thought wait for me to lure it away. That way you can sneak off unnoticed."

Sakido wasn't one to stand by and watch, matter of fact she'd rather have taken action being the elite warrior she was, but this wasn't an ordinary situation she was in, and they needed a weakness to defeat this enemy. "_It's killology__ class all over again__,_" she thought. "Alright. I'll wait here. Anything else I should know?" she asked.

Shun boarded his aero slider and hovered in the air for a brief moment before answering, "Yeah, Any red lettering on the stat's screen is bad. You'll know what it means when they pop up," he said, and he was gone in the next second.

Sakido just stood there for a moment, rather confused and lost for words. "_W__hen red words appear?_" she thought, also wondering what the hell was a stats screen. She sighed rubbing the bridge of her nose. "There he goes being an idiot again. Inconsiderate ASS!" she muttered as she tossed the glass brick to the ground and kicked it away (good thing those things were built to withstand a car running over it). She hated this. Here she was, lost on an alien world and only that guy to accompany her. Fan-freaking-tastic.

-Break-

Shun flew through the cave finding the area he had been not long ago, He hoped he could spot the Heartless before it spotted him so that he'd be more in control of the situation. However, as it stood it had suddenly disappeared from the sky while he had his hands full with Sakido. Damn it all, of all the times he needed some help, some luck as it were, he didn't seem to get it... but he did get a spur of inspiration, as he figured that should the Heartless get the drop on him, he'd lead it away towards the hangar. That way, he would have a home field advantage, especially because of the special metal they called Dragonium and how the hangars were lined with the stuff for safety reasons due to its special properties. That way, if things went south, like if he ran out of options to shoot his target, then he could always switch to close range combat whilst taking advantage of the Dragonium in the hangars.

*BOOM!*

He stopped short of the entrance when he noticed that the crevice was MUCH wider than before. A clear sign to him that Maleficent was making her move. "_Damn it!_" he thought, as things were going EXACTLY the way he feared. "_She knew where I'd be coming from!_" he mentally cursed, but seeing that there were no other choices, he approached the cave entrance with caution, looking behind him every now and then for reassurance. "Hope you're ready, Sakido…" he muttered, turning back to the entrance before him. "Cause here I go…" he gulped as he proceeded out of the crevice, having dismissed his Aero Slider in favor of moving on foot. Moving slowly whilst looking left and right, he checked to see if he could spot the Heartless lurking about and got ready to defend himself. That's when a shadow passed over head, and Shun stiffened before looking to the ground. He spotted the shadow start to rapidly expand. Gulping thickly, he did NOT want to look up, dreading the sight that was most likely waiting for him, and against his better judgment, his mind wandered to the image he had; an image of the Heartless right upon him with its jaws wide open, and ready to pounce. The rows of sharp teeth appearing in his mind as his body lay between them torn to a shred. "Ugh! Why did I have to think that?" he shuddered, shaking the image out of his head, before finally turning around and looking up. "Oh crap…" was the only thing he could say. Right there in its full terrifying glory was the dragon Heartless. Shun couldn't help but swallow thickly when he realized that the thing was drooling like it was preparing for its next meal, and he knew that if he wasn't careful, HE would be that meal. Pushing aside the involuntary fear he felt, he went into a ready stance as the Heartless readied itself to lunge at him. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself, knowing he had to time this right if he wanted to evade the Heartless, but even so, he summoned a small ripple just in case, ready to pull out a weapon at a moment's notice.

Squashing down the instinctive fear he felt, he got into position. "Wait for it…" he muttered as the Heartless paused and leaned forward slightly, but he paid the odd action no mind, as he couldn't afford to get distracted now. "Wait for it…!" he muttered again through gritted teeth as a growl escaped the Heatless' mouth, once again filling Shun with the primal fear one faced when potentially facing their death, but he squashed it down again. "Wait for it…!" he gritted once more, trying to get the timing down whilst backing off instinctively to a safer distance. However, that's when he realized something VERY wrong. He realized his legs couldn't move…

-Break-

While all that was happening, back at the cave that looked out into the canyon, Sakido was pacing irritably. Since Shun was apparently of no help now and all she had was this glass brick to keep her company (she had no desire to learn from it right now since she was sure she just might screw it up), she decided to sit back and reflect on the entire weeks events. This crap was making her head hurt again and she just had too much on her mind. Tossing the brick aside, she wanted nothing to do with this world's 'technology', instead opting to look out into the canyon. As she sat there on the rock reminiscing about home, where she was right now reminded her of her dwelling on the spire in the pinnacles and for some reason she hated that…more than usual even. She just couldn't seem to get used to it this whole new life she had, and even back on the Destiny Islands she had a hard time adjusting since she mostly stayed away from the dwelling just off the cost, fearing her presence might fear the locals, leaving Shun as the only form of contact she had at the time and any other time was spent laying on the beach out on the opposite side of the Island, at least until something happened that changed that the very same day she found her secret spot.

**Flashback (Sakido's POV), several days ago**

The day had been rather dull, as Shun had informed me the day before that he had some business to attend to, and as such he wouldn't be able to come until the evening. As a result, I spent most of the morning just lying on the beach, enjoying the warmth of the sun. I had been like this for a while, until I suddenly felt the sun being blocked by what she I assumed was a cloud. Of course, I didn't mind it, since the cloud cover was nice on hot days like this, or at least it WAS fine, until I heard a gasp coming from the 'cloud'. Hearing the gasp, my eyes snapped open and I found myself looking up at a child no older than three, and he was soon joined by his friend who was no older than four by the looks of it.

At the sight of the 2 children, my mind went into overdrive and I quickly rolled over, getting on all fours, before jumping back on my feet, but with my back against the nearby wall. "_Not good…!_" I mentally cursed. I was careless, and now these kids found me, and I just knew they were about to scream in fear, or worse, run away and warn people of the 'monster' on the island, and I knew I didn't want to hurt them, especially when they were only children. The next few moments were tense, as the two children continued to stare at me, so much so that it was becoming unnerving, but surprisingly, they never screamed, nor did they even show any signs of fear. In fact, I could have sworn I saw wonder in their eyes. One of the children, the four year old, suddenly walked up to me and I tensed up, wondering what he was planning to do. Not sure what to do, I could only stare at him as he lifted up his hand…and placed it on my thigh?

"_What the hell?!_" I thought with a blush, since of all the things I thought he might do, THIS was most certainly NOT one of them.

The child kept his hand where it was for a moment, before he suddenly asked, "Are you real?" in an innocent tone befitting a child.

"Huh?" was the only 'intelligent' thing I could say as I looked down at the child who was looking up at me in wonder, while his friend looked down at the ground in a shy way.

The child blinked for a moment, before asking another question. "Hey lady, are you real? Are you a dog?" THAT got my attention.

"_Wait, WHAT?!_" I thought as the question registered in my head. "_A dog?! How in Syndel's name did this child come to that conclusion?! I this some kind of idiotic way to express fear or something?!_" I thought, offended at the sheer absurdity of the question, as there was NO way I could have possibly resembled a dog.

"No, dummy! I told you she wasn't a dog! She's a bat!" came the protest from the three year old who had remained quiet up till now.

"_What?!_" I thought blandly. Seriously, where was all this crap coming from? Just as I thought that, I realized something. "_Wait a minute…had this child…seen me before?_" I wondered as the children started to argue.

"I'm not a dummy! I already told you, she doesn't look like a bat!" the four year old boy retorted.

"Oh yeah? Well how do you explain her wings?!" the three year old argued back.

Before I knew it, I was in the center of an idiotic argument between the two boys on what they thought I was, and suffice to say, I was NOT amused at all. "Enough! Stop it! Just stop this idiotic argument!" I shouted, before adding "Also, I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!" strangely, this actually caused the two children to stare at me in amazement.

"She can talk!"

"I told you!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

The two boys started arguing again, and I felt my eye twitch at the sight. "Stop!" I shouted in exasperation, and thankfully, this time they listened. Huffing in annoyance, I spread out my wings and turned away. Just as I was about to fly away, the three year old spoke again.

"Wait!" he said.

"_Oh great. Now what?_" I thought in annoyance, before turning towards him. "What?! What do you want?!" I said exasperatedly.

"...uh," he looked down again shyly before asking meekly, "D-do you live here?" THAT got my attention.

I didn't actually know how to answer that one, as technically this WAS my home at the moment, as I had been living in this shack off the coast near the front of the Island when it was dark so no one would see me, but did I actually live here? "No," I said before I realized what I was saying.

That's when the four year old spoke up. "Then…you don't know your way around this island, do you?"

"No," I said again without thinking, since I was just too perplexed by this weirdness. These children didn't fear me, and I couldn't help but wonder why.

"…H-hey lady." Okay, now I was getting annoyed at being called that, so turning to the three year old I said, "My NAME, is Sakido. Not lady."

The child struggled for a moment with the wording and tried to say my name as well as he could…too bad it still came out butchered. "Hey, S-Susado…" he said, uncertainty present in his voice, though I could tell he knew he was getting my name wrong since he saw the disapproving look I game him. "Y-you want to see a secret spot we found?" he finished his question. Now I was feeling perplexed. What was with the sudden questions?

"You're hiding out here, right?" the four year old clarified, and I simply nodded in response. "You want us to show you a secret we found?" He asked again. I sat there for a moment, inwardly rolling my eyes. For all I knew, this 'secret' was a beached whale carcass or a sea slug nest and that was something I did NOT want to see…but in the end I decided to go along with it and follow them. "_I must be REALLY bored today to have agreed to this…_" I mentally sighed.

To my shock, the secret spot they wanted to show me was a small lagoon on the other side of the island. The lagoon had tree roots growing from the cliff side, a canopy of trees, and flowers of all types lining the sides while the ocean gently washed against the sand to and fro on the small coral reef just off the shore, and even a small waterfall and pool near the cliff side. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my entire life, so much so that all I could do was stare in awe.

"See? You can hide here and no one will ever find you," the four year old smiled.

I was surprised when he said that, but I finally realized something I had forgotten to ask. "How did you know I was here?" The four year old turned to the three year old who simply looked away towards the water.

"I-I caught a glimpse of you yesterday, and I saw you this morning sleeping near the seaside shack. I tried telling my dad, but no one believed me, so I tried coming out her to see if I could find you myself," he explained.

"And I followed him since we're not allowed to come out her by ourselves yet," the four year old added.

"_Well…that explains one thing,_" I thought, before asking, "Then why help me? For all you know, I could be a fugitive," I said in a flat tone.

At this the boys looked uncertain, before the three year old answered, "Well…you haven't hurt us her, and you didn't hurt Mr. Hayami the other day either, so you can't be all that bad, right?"

When I heard that answer, I blinked, not because of the answer itself, but because those were more or less Shun's exact words. "_Does everyone think like that here?_" I wondered.

"H-hey Sus-Sakado, d-do you want to build a sand castle?" the three year old asked, catching my attention. Turning towards him, I saw he had left the shade we were in and was now standing near the water. I blinked in surprise, right before I felt something tugging my hand. Looking down, I saw the four year old who looked up at me and smiled before saying, "Yeah, let's play!" Before I knew it, I had spent the whole day playing with the two kids whom I learned were named Syrus (the three year old) and Robert (the four year old). The rest of the day was spent running, playing, climbing, and even flying across the ocean, and while it felt strange to me (I even idly thought "_Oh how the mighty have fallen for me to be reduced to this,_" at my situation), I actually found that I…enjoyed the time, especially since it sort of reminded me of how things were when I was a child, back when I was with Darius and the others, and by the time the boys had to go home, I was…glad that I had had that experience once more, as I had forgotten what it was like to just enjoy myself and have fun. Before the two of them went home, they promised they would keep my existence here a secret for the time being, which was something I was very glad to hear, as I had come to enjoy their company.

**Flashback end (Back to third person POV)**

That was the first encounter she had had with people outside of her world and the boys kept their promise, even when she had noticed them amongst the kids Shun had invited her to play with (though they talked with each other when no one was looking). "_Maybe when this is over, I'll go and visit them again,_" she thought, smiling at the memory. However, she didn't have long to reminisce, as she suddenly heard a loud boom from the spot Shun had been headed towards. "Shun…" she said, worry present in her voice. Inconsiderate or not, he had been there for her, and now it was her turn to do the same. Picking up the glass brick, she flew down the hall as fast as she could. From what Shun had told her earlier, this plan could potentially kill him, something that she did not see the point of. Not only would that be wasting his life, if he died, she'd be stranded here for life.

-Break-

"_I can't move? I can't move! Why can't I move!?_" were Shun's frantic thoughts. Looking down at his immobilized limbs, he quickly found out why, as his legs were covered in an all too familiar black ink/tar-like substance that brought back awful memories from his first year as a Rebirth, specifically his first encounter with Maleficent. The Shadow of Despair, an extremely dark and foul spell of black magic and one of Maleficent's favorite spells. The spell worked by projecting a foul aura that travels in the form of this black goop that latches on and engulfs its victim, sending their minds to a world of shadows where they are forced to experience their worst memories and where their fears come to life. Once enveloped, the mental torment would weaken, and potentially break the target's mind…and Shun was smack dab in that situation again. "Damn it!" Shun cursed as he continued to struggle against the goop, not wanting to go through this again like back when he had first encountered Maleficent back when he was a newbie. That was how the witch learned so much about his past, and the experience itself nearly left him catatonic had Thomas not intervened, and even then he had spent 3 months being rehabilitated, as well as getting professional help to dispel the remnants of the spell that had clung to him. Another issue was the side-effect of the spell, which threw off the victim's perception of reality at such high levels, that the victim would lose all sense of time and space to the point that an instant may feel like an eternity...not that it mattered much when the victim was too busy just wishing for the pain to stop, some to the point of doing ANYTHING just to get out of the effects.

As the shadow pulled him down, he attempted to summon his Aero Slider and jump on, but the shadows held on to him like tentacles and were soon binding his arms and torso, pulling him down further and further into the depths below, with every struggle, every thrust, every yank, twist, and pull, he found himself being absorbed more and more into the darkness, he struggled more and more as he started to feel himself succumb to the fear and despair. Before long, his senses began to dull, his ears went deaf, and all was almost lost to him as the will of his mind was sapped away into darkness. As the spell took hold, he felt like screaming as he started to relive that day. The fateful day that his life took a turn or the worst, the day he lost his family, and the day he made the mistake of devoting his life to that petty goal of revenge. Already he was starting to see the images again. He saw his dad being beaten up by several thugs, before they decided to shoot him repeatedly with a magnum as they didn't care if they hit a vital organ or not, while several other thugs forced his mom to watch what they were doing, before they grabbed her and repeatedly struck her with an axe and leaving her as a broken heap next to his dad. With their job done, the crime lords who had hired the thugs ordered them to leave no evidence. He remembered the smell of the gasoline the thugs poured all over the floor, before the crime lords simply flicked the cigars they were smoking into the gasoline, lighting it up and setting his family home ablaze, how once the criminals left, he rushed out of the closet he had been hiding in to his parents' side, finding them just barely alive, their last words to him were that they loved him and always would, and that they wanted him to live on…right before they died in his arms. He remembered how he cried in anguish, futilely shaking his parents as though trying to wake them as the burning house started to collapse, how he struggled to escape, the smoke choking him, the heat burning his skin as he frantically tried to escape, and most of all, the burning pillar that fell on his arm, the heat that burned and seared his arm beyond recognition, and lastly, once he managed to escape, how he fell to his knees and with an almost beastial sound that could not…should not have come out of a child's mouth, he roared at the sky as a new emotion filled his now broken heart. Hatred. He hated them…hated the people who had taken everything from him…hated with every fiber of his being those heartless monsters that murdered his parents. At that moment, he had vowed that he'd kill them all. He'd hunt them down like animals till none remained. At this point, Shun couldn't take it anymore…

"Stop stop stop stop! ENOUGH! MAKE IT STOP! SOMEONE! ANYONE!" he screamed in a mixture of pain and anguish. The only reply he got was Maleficent's cruel laughter as an image of her appeared within the black world.

"That's right! Scream! Cry! Now suffer, you meddling Rebirth!" she laughed wickedly as she struck out her staff.

Fortunately, Maleficent's tirade was cut short when Shun suddenly felt someone grab his shoulders and shake him violently, causing the hallucination to dissipate a little…right before he felt a VERY familiar claw slap him in the face…

"Shun, wake up!" Sakido shouted as she shook him vigorously, before resorting to slapping him across the face…hard, causing him to topple over. However, to Sakidos surprise, a dark ink-like substance suddenly appeared on Shun, before splattering apart, with most of it ending up on the canyon grounds bellow before seemingly coming to life and moving back into the shadow. What she didn't realize was that some of the goop had splattered onto her dress, and was now traveling up her body.

Despite being severely disoriented, Shun still managed to keep some of his sense and remember one of the spell's terrifying abilities. The ability to transfer from one person to another. "Sakido…look out…" he managed to murmur, his mind still very much exhausted from the ordeal, but his Rebirth Mark was quickly clearing the haze up, evident by the glow coming from under his bandages.

Sakido barely managed to hear his murmur, as she suddenly felt a burning sensation flare up around her, before she suddenly felt a familiar excruciating pain on her back, followed by the familiar sensation of her blood pressure dropping to dangerously low levels and her back splattering open. "_Th-this is…!_" she though fuzzily, remembering EXACTLY what this was. This was the moment of her death. Stumbling forward, she felt herself drop and all too familiar demon. "_Buwaro?_" she thought, before turning to her right, and saw Rhea lying beside him as she felt her breathing constrict as she lost more and more blood. Suddenly, a familiar voice rang in her head. "How pathetic. You actually thought you could redeem yourself by rescuing a child? HA! What a disappointment you are! Your father must truly be ashamed," Maleficent said as an image of Darius appeared before Sakido, but unlike the person she remembered as her father, his eye sockets were hollowed out and black, his skin like porcelain with small cracks over the contours of his cheeks. Sakido could only stare at the mockery of her father's image as everyone and everything frozen in mid-air as the colors began to fade. "Oh, but there is no after life for you OR him is there? Why that just makes it even worse," she added, before appearing next to Rhea, a cruel smirk. "The fact that he died trusting you to make the right choices in life," Sakido's eyes widened when she heard that, and even more when Maleficent pointed her staff at the image of Darius. "To think he gave up his life thinking you'd live happily ever after in life," the jewel on the staff sparked with lightning, causing Sakido's eyes to widen in horror, realizing what Maleficent was about to do. "No…No! Stop! Please! Don't…!" Sakido tried to scream, but Maleficent's cruel smirk simply became deeper, before she said, "It truly is PATHETIC!"

*BOOM*

Darius's body was instantly destroyed, reducing it to dust, and Sakido could only sit there, tears welling up in her eyes as the pain she felt the day she lost her father hit her once again. However, Maleficent was not finished. "And then there's this," she said, causing Sakido to turn towards her and see her standing over Buwaro…right before she roughly kicked him aside. "This pathetic slobbering idiot of a child. I wonder how his life might have turned out. Oh well, not like it matters since he's lost any and all chances he could have had to rise to greatness, and all because of YOU, his psychotic little brat of a sister! Why, I'll bet he must so much better now that YOU are not in the picture. I wonder how he'll react when he finds out what his 'beloved' sister did to him. I'll bet he'll want nothing to do with you," Maleficent said, her smile becoming crueler and crueler as sakido started to cry. "And then there was your drunken bastard child of an older brother. Now what did he do for you again…?"

"SHUT UP!" Sakido shrieked. "SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!" she screamed as she suddenly dashed against the wind, ramming into Maleficent's image, only for the image to simply fade away. Sakdio continued screaming as loud as she could, deafening Shun who had just got his senses back, and flying faster than even his Aero Slider could take him. She was enraged, blinded, and had no idea where she wanted to go, nor did she care. She just wanted to run. Run and never look back, with the only coherent thought in her mind being her desire to tear that thing and that bitch to pieces.

"It doesn't matter how hard you try sakido you'll never gain your fathers respect," Maleficent's taunted. Sakido stopped short; unaware of the shadows effects, as despite it being Maleficent speaking, to her, the voice was Darius' voice. "You are a lost cause and you truely are pathetic," the voice told her as she sat there staring as the Heartless appeared and approached her, but what she was seeing was her entire family and Rhea looking at her with contempt, along with all the people she had tormented in Hell, and even Darius was there, looking at her with gritted teeth and tears in his eyes as though he knew everything she had done. At this point, any and all mental defense Sakido had crumbled, and she could only weep while Maleficent continued to laugh at her pain.

Back in the real world, Shun had managed to catch up to her, and had shouting at her the whole time since she froze. He knew what she must have been going through, the pain she must have been feeling at the moment, and he knew without a doubt that Maleficent was probably laughing her head off, and he hated her even more for that. This was the biggest reason why he HATED Maleficent with a passion. She loved to torment people and bring them nothing but misery, and by the way sakido was crying he was certain she was enjoying every moment of it. He was about to try shaking her, but a familiar roar rang through the air, and he wasn't surprised to see the Heartless had returned. Acting quickly, he grabbed Sakido's wrist, careful not to dislocate or break anything like before, and quickly threw her on his back and on to his Aero Slider, and quickly activated the jets, just as the Heartless smashed against the canyon side. After making sure the Heartless was temporarily incapacitated due to being buried under some rocks, he placed Sakido down, before quickly slapping her (with his HUMAN hand) with enough force to snap a person out of the trance, which unfortunately, was enough force to send her to the ground.

She gasped from the impact, before turning towards Shun…right before she began to cry. "W-why, *sniff* Why did you?- *gasp* hit m-me?" she said through sobs, as in her eyes, it wasn't Shun she was seeing, but rather Darius. "Darius, what did I do wrong?"

Shun didn't know what to say when he heard this. Usually that snapped anyone out of the spell, even if only for a brief time. However, Shun had forgotten Sakido, being a demon, had an aspect of darkness that made her more susceptible to the shadow's power. It fed off of the darkness no matter if it was evil or not. "Sakido!" Shun said, grabbing her by the collar of her gown. "You have to snap out of it!" He said as he shook her. Behind them, he could hear the Heartless roar as it had managed to dig itself out of the rocks. "Sakido, listen to me! You have to suppress the feelings you have right now! You have to focus!" He shouted, as he heard the sounds of claws climbing over the crater and he turned to see the Heartless at the edge, roaring, struggling to get its other wing out of the rubble constricting it. "_This…is really bad!_" Shun thought grimly before he decided on one last course of action. It was a huge gamble but it just might work. He'd give her some of his will power to help her squeeze through the pain, but it would drain him to dangerously low levels, possibly disabling his ability to use Bullet Creation for a while, but he had no other choice.

Acting quickly he undid his bandages as the Heartless forcefully removed its wing, tearing through the membrane on its wing, causing it to roar in pain and raising its arm high into the air for it to heal. Taking the chance, Shun placed a finger against his Rebirth Mark, before placing another finger over Sakido's heart, where he knew her Rebirth Mark was located, started to filter out the memories by force until he noticed something strange. The Shadow of Despair was wearing off all on its own, not just on her, but onhim as well. He heard the Heartless' painful roar, and now he was starting to wonder what was going on.

-Break-

**Meanwhile…**

Maleficent was struggling with her wrist. Just moments ago, she had ordered the Storm Rider to get its wing out at all cost, even if it had to rip it, which it did and now it had felt like her bones had broken and she noticed her skin had been torn, but she knew she was nowhere near the fight to sustain any such damage. In fact, she had not even left this spot the whole time, only using her projected image which had been made real with the Hollow Drive's reality altering powers to engage the Rebirths. That was when she noticed Maria smiling in the background. "_Did she do this?_" she wondered, before realizing something. The damage she had sustained was the same as what the Storm Rider had sustained. But if so, then why was the wench smiling? She then noticed that Sephora was smiling as well. Did they know something that she didn't? Something they neglected to tell her?

-Break-

**Back to the fight…**

Shun watched as the Heartless' wing began to regenerate before he suddenly remembered the auto function of the replenishment process he was administering, and stopped short of a full recovery, as Sakido had started to regain control over herself. When the process had stopped, he estimated that he still had just enough power to create one round of his strongest bullet: the Hyper Bullet.

When Sakido finally came to her senses, she saw Shun standing in front of her. "W-What…?" she murmured, rubbing her forehead. "H-How did you get here?"

"Here? What are you talking about? Why wouldn't I be here?" Shun blinked in confusion.

Confused by his answer, Sakido looked around and saw that they were not in Hell, or the Ring of The Slightly Damned, but rather they were back in the barren canyons in the outskirts of Radiant Garden. That was also when she noticed the tears staining her face and remembered what she had just done and she suddenly felt scared. Turning towards Shun, she asked, "How much did you see!?" she demanded angry about her emotions.

Shun blinked, before answering, "Nothing."

This answer did not help to calm Sakido down. "What?! Don't lie to me, Shun! WHAT. DID. YOU. HEAR!?" she demanded, grabbing him by the lapels and shook him furiously.

"N-N-N-NOTHING! Sakido, I didn't see anything, and I couldn't have even if I wanted to! That was all an illusion! It was all in your head!" Shun frantically answered, causing her to stop short, and causing him to see stars due to how dizzy he was from the shaking.

"_All in my head?_" Sakido thought, before the realization sunk in. "_All. In. my. HEAD!?_" she thought viciously as she faced the Heartless that was stalking towards them. However, her mind wasn't on the Heartless, but rather on the taunts and insults Maleficent had used to torture her with. "Your father must truly be ashamed!" she remembered. "The fact that he died trusting you to make the right choices in life!" she was suddenly seeing red as her blood began to boil. "It truly is PATHETIC!"

Before Sakido realized what she was doing, lightning was already sparking around her hands, practically making them glow, before she brought them together and created a lightning bolt bigger than any she had ever created in her life, all the while growling in such a deep and savage tone, that even Shun backed away from her, not wanting to be near when all Hell broke loose."GrrrrRRRRRAUGH!", she roared as the lightning bolt became even bigger than ever, her mind set only on killing the Heartless in front of her, before tearing Maleficent to shreds, and for a brief moment, Shun swore he saw her eyes change from their usual deep blue color to black, before he backed away, his instincts screaming at him to get away from there.

The Heartless let out a roar and leapt through the air at its target, but Sakido had something else to say about that. "YOU BITCH!" She shrieked, and with a flash, she unleashed the lightning bolt, blasting a hole right through the Heartless' chest.

-Break-

Maleficent gasped as she hunched over and held her chest as a gaping hole appeared over her chest right through her heart, black blood spewed forth from her wounds as she fell over, almost unable to breath. "_What is happening? Why is this happening now?!_" she thought, quickly using her magic to seal the wound before it got serious.

-Break-

While the Heartless was reeling from her first attack, Sakido took the opportunity and shot a second bolt through its shoulder, nearly severing the wing from its owner, before Shun suddenly grabbed her from behind and pulled her back, causing her to miss her third shot. Before she could protest as to why he did that, she saw the reason, as she saw shadows lift themselves from the ground like some kind of mouth, and try to devour her again.

Maleficent was pissed. So pissed that she connected to the Heartless and roared, "I'll get you for that, Demon!" so loudly, that the girls behind her were forced to jam ear plugs into their ears. When her angry tirade was done, dark energy began gathering around the Heartless in preparation for something big.

Before she could respond to the threat, Sakido felt herself being thrown onto Shun's Aero Slider and they were off just as the region was engulfed in darkness, and when it dissipated, the entire mountain side suddenly went flat just as the entire region was swallowed in shadows. Once they were in at a safe distance, Shun landed, before laughing heartily. "Hah hahaha! Oh man, you're the only other person I've ever seen piss Maleficent off that badly!" he said, as he smiled back at her.

"Oh really?" she said rather sarcastically, as she had a feeling she knew where this was going. "Who's the first?"

"That would be me. Nothing better than getting under the old hag's skin," Shun answered with a confident smirk. Sakido just rolled her eyes in response, though instead of her usual annoyed expression, this time it was good naturedly as she also found herself enjoying Maleficent's angry expression. That's when Shun said, "Oh! Do you have that UniT I gave you?" She only looked at him with a questioning look, before realizing what he was referring to, and pulled out the 'brick' he had given her. Shun nodded when he saw the device. "Good. Now, SCAN IT!" he commanded, and in response, she turned around without protest and hit the button on the side as the screen flashed to life. The data came on and a screen popped out as the data rushed down. "Um…Shun…" Sakido said, not sure how to take in the info she was getting, as there were a bunch of bars and some weird discoloration around the diagram of the Heartless, specifically the areas she had hit and series of bars of varying lengths displaying weird letters such as STR and LCK. She wasn't sure how to make heads or tails of it, but when she showed Shun the data, he practically went bug eyed.

"WHAAAAATTT!?" he exclaimed as he double checked to make sure he was reading the data properly. "That thing is a Storm Rider?" He said, disbelief clear in his eyes. "_That should be__ impossible__!__There__ was no way that could be right__! I read about the Storm Rider back when I first came to Radiant Garden, back when I often read through Master Ansem's research, and according to his research, Storm Riders should not be able to do what this one just did,_" he thought, looking around at the devastation, the only reason this had caught him off guard was because the notes neglected to include a picture since they were that rare, but he did remember how to defeat this foe. "Alright Sakido, we'll need to split up."

"Wait, what?" she blinked, before quickly protesting, "No way! THAT plan nearly got us killed the first time."

"This time it'll be different, I swear," Shun reassured.

"_Yeah right,_" Sakido thought cynically, remembering a certain green skinned puppet drone by the name of Tsavo saying the same exact words once. That kind of attitude was exactly what made him into what he is today, the meek bastard whose only redeeming point was that he always did what he was ordered to do. Unfortunately, she had no choice as to go with it seeing how there wasn't anything else they could do…or was there. "Wait a minute, Shun. What about the Gummi Ship? Can't we just go there?"

"Sakido, that's going to take some time," Shun started, but stopped when he heard the familiar roar not all that far from where they were. "Time Maleficent is NOT going to give us," he said grimly, before looking her in the eye. "That's why I need you to trust me on this one. Are you with me or not?" he said, just as the Storm Rider banked out of the shadows and roared as it soon spotted them.

Despite the situation, Sakido paused for a brief second before nodding her consent, as the two of them dived out of the way, right as the Storm Rider rammed into the spot they had just been in. Taking advantage of the moments opportunity, Shun quickly explained what he needed her to do, before quickly pointing her in the direction to reach the hangar, while he went to deal with the Storm Rider. "_Alright big blue and ugly, let's see what you got!_" he thought as he charged at the Heartless.

-break-

They banked over the mountain and across the plains as he attempted to lead the Heartless astray, straight for the hanger where the gummi ship awaited. The Storm Rider started summoning more bolts of lightning to hit him, as well as firing more of its Thunder Wings, which he managed to evade, albeit narrowly thanks to the homing properties of the attack. Quickly zipping pass the Storm Rider, Shun pulled out his sub-machine gun whilst at the same time readying his Gatling gun again, and opening fire on the Storm Rider, causing the Heartless to chase after him. Roaring in annoyance at the thing that was trying to harm it, the Storm Rider fired more of its Thunder Wings at Shun, who continued to dodge, albeit extremely narrowly, with several of the shots managing to graze his Aero Slider, causing minimal damage. At the same time, Shun continued to open fire at the Heartless with various different weapons, yet none of them seemed to be having any effect. He lead it over the top of the hangar to an area that to the untrained eye, looked like a quarry with a small expansion being built at the side. However, Shun knew that it was actually a crater filled with what looked like the remains of several buildings that looked like they were wrecked from the ships that either failed to take off in an attempt to get away from the miasma, or crashed back down into the ground, blowing up several buildings and leaving only some sharpened pillars and debris in its wake.

While this was happening, Sakido, having taken another route from their starting point, was hiding behind large rocks at a safe distance, whilst keeping the scanner trained on the Heartless. While she did this, something was bothering her about the whole situation.

**Flashback (Sakido's POV), several minutes ago**

Upon making my way to the hangar, I realized that I had forgotten to give Shun his glass brick back. Pulling it out, I noticed something written in clear red letters on the screen. [WARNING: false pretense], were the words I saw. "_False pretense? What the Hell does that mean?_" I thought, though this made her feel uneasy. Ever since their encounter with Maleficent, I instinctively felt like something was off, much like a sixth sense warning me when someone was watching her with malicious intent. "_Wow, I feel like I'm back home again…_" I thought, as this kind of feeling was very common for me back in Hell. Shaking my head, I calmed myself down. Closing my eyes, I suddenly felt the wind, but strangely, this wind felt different. This wind felt like it had a will of its own, and somehow, I felt like I could understand it, and while it wasn't in words, the feeling I got carried with it a warning of malice, as though telling me that all was not as it seems. "_What…was that just now?_" I wondered, just as Shun's device started beeping. Taking a look, I saw the words [Warning! Warning!] all across the screen. I couldn't really put my finger on it, but for some reason, a feeling of dread descended on me…

**Flashback end (back to normal POV)**

"_Why do I still feel this feeling?_" Sakido thought as she continued to look towards the battle. While Shun seemed to be holding his own just fine, her instincts were still warning her of something. "_But what?_" she thought in frustration, right as her Rebirth Mark started to glow and another message from the Master came through.

Within her mind's eye, she saw was a mass of shadows flowing in one direction and she knew they were heading here, which made her wonder why. "_What__am I thinking?! Of course I know what it is! It's a damned ambush!_" she mentally berated herself. However, that still didn't answer why the Master wanted her to hide herself for the moment. "_Perhaps Maleficent can't see anything but the shadow cast on the ground from the light?_" she guessed, though she had a feeling that wasn't entirely her own thoughts. She didn't know how to make sense of this world or its technology, but what she did know was magic and the explanation on hand did make some sense, though she didn't know how. "_A__lright __then wise__ guy__. Why__ am __I__ waiting here?_" she mentally questioned to see if the connection went both ways. She didn't get an answer, which was annoying, but in the end, all she could do was just sit there and see what the Master wanted her to see.

As she watched Shun fend the Heartless off, it hit her as she saw Shun pull out a rocket launcher and attempt to blow up the Storm Rider's face, only to have it pass harmlessly through and onto the grounds below as he bravely fought this battle he was clearly losing, as she saw that for all his weapons, they hadn't even made a dent in the creature, not even once, and yet she remembered she had just nearly killed it with her thunder blasts. Therefore, she wondered how was it that this being was still unharmed without even a scratch. That's when her mind turned to the shadows that were traveling earlier and the massive black crater Maleficent bore into the canyon grounds. She had deliberately taken her sweet time, and why? Sakido stood and raced off into the sky. "Because that wasn't the real Storm Rider!" She realized as she raced toward the battle with the information in tow, trying to warn Shun of the immanent attack, but as she made her way into the crater the shadows suddenly leap out and tried to skewer her. Quickly adjusting her flight, she managed to evade the blade, but not before it slashed her on the side, leaving a rather deep gash. Despite that, Sakido bit through the pain and continued on her course.

At the same time, Shun was already starting to feel worn out, but he knew he had a Heartless to defeat. Readying his weapon, he was about to fire again, until a bolt of lightning passed him, and struck the Storm Rider through the gut. Turning around, he saw Sakido flying towards him whilst holding her side. His eyes widened in horror when he saw the blood seeping out of the wound. "Sakido!" He cried in alarm, worry evident in his voice. However, the small lapse in his guard was the chance Maleficent wanted.

"Shun!" Sakido yelled, prompting him to look up to see the Storm Rider's mouth open, releasing several tendrils of shadow. Acting quickly, Shun raised his left arm and brought up a barrier, blocking most of the tendrils, but not before a few got through and sliced into him, tearing up parts of his clothes and flesh, though thankfully avoiding anything vital, though the force was enough to send him flying off of his Aero Slider and down to the grounds below.

Sakido gasped and raced down towards him; ignoring the pain she felt from the gash on the side of her stomach and reached out for his hand. Just as she grabbed him, the shadow beneath split open, revealing the Storm Rider who had somehow been teleported via the shadow, giving Sakido little time to act, as it was either going to take one of them or swallow the both of them whole. Thinking quickly, she did the only thing she could think of, which conveniently included a little personal payback to Shun for what he did to her earlier. Flipping in mid air, she spin kicked him out of the air, and out of the range of the Storm Rider, deep into one of the hangars where she heard a resounding crash from the machinery inside before turning to the Storm Rider and attempted to summon a tornado to keep her from being torn to a shred by propelling her outward. It only partially worked…

*Crunch!*

Sakido screamed in pain as the Storm Rider clamped its jaws on her torso and like a whale, flew high into the air as though from out of the ocean. Sakido gasped as she tried to breath, only to feel the jaws tighten around her. That was when she heard Maleficent's voice ring out, as though coming from the Heartless. "No I have you, Demon! You'll suffer for what you did!" Maleficent laughed as the Heartless slowly applied more pressure to its bite, slowly crushing Sakido's ribs, making it harder and harder for her to breath.

Shun groaned as he struggled to get back to his feet as the shrapnel from around him clattered to the ground. He tried moving his left arm, and found that while it did still work, every movement came with sparks coming out of the arm, signaling just how badly damaged it was. Next to him, he saw that his Aero Slider had been broken in half, with both jets broken off. Groaning slightly, he straightened himself out as he stood in the hangar, his body felling like crap in several places, and he knew that if it wasn't for him being a Rebirth, he probably would have really broken something if not be outright dead right about now, as he knew the spot he felt sore were most likely cracked if not outright fractured, and ironically he was in this state thanks to SAKIDO no less. "_This…is REALLY bad,_" he thought, as without his slider, he would be confined to fighting from the ground, and with his arm in shambles he couldn't summon any of his larger, more powerful guns, leaving him with just his handguns that he could use without his left arm, and even that was questionable, since like it or not, his arm was the key to opening his sub-space storage. Looking around to see if there was anything he could use to salvage the situation, all he saw was the tons of Dragonium bars used to construct the casing of most Gummi Ships and hangars.

That's when he heard Maleficent's voice boom throughout the hangar. "Now then, come out Shun! I'm waiting for you, coward!"

At the declaration, Shun couldn't help but sneer. "Tch. Why don't YOU come out and face me yourself, you cowardly witch!" he spat.

"Hmph-hmph, and what makes you think I'm the one being a coward? After all, isn't it smarter to wait behind ones minions to see your opponents next move, learn their strengths, harbor their weaknesses?" she answered with a hint of ferocity. "I already know you wouldn't let that demon wench die. In fact, you wouldn't let anyone you even remotely care about die! You think you're a damned hero, but I know what you really are. You're just a coward trying to run away from the truth and hide what you truly are! You act so strong when you're nothing more than the bane of benign backwash!"

It was a game of wits now, and the first one to break would give the other the upper hand and Shun couldn't give in. "…and what's your excuse? Surely if someone as 'gracious' as yourself knows me so well, then why not attack me outright and be done with it?"

"Heh heh heh heh..." Maleficent's voice laughed, causing Shun to spin around, looking for the source. "Aha hahahahahahahah! And what makes you think I'd waste my time with the likes of you? I have more important things to do than waste time killing off a peon."

"Or maybe it's because your just weak." At this, Maleficent froze as Maria and Sephora snickered behind her, as they knew it was true. "Why else would you proclaim yourself the 'Mistress of All Evil'?" Shun taunted. "I'll tell you why! It's because you're nothing more than the conceited, inbred offspring of the devil's retarded cousin who can't seem to take the hint of when to just piss off!" Maleficent suddenly gritted her teeth as the sputtering of both girls behind her got to her ears, and judging by the sudden silence Shun knew he was winning. "I mean sheesh, it's an apt comparison to call yourself 'backwash', but calling yourself 'benign'? That's just stroking your own ego, but I'll bite," Shun said, a devilish grin on his face as he straightened up like a soldier and gave a mock solute. "To the Mistress of All Evil! A fitting salute!" he said, before taking his hand off his head and changing the gesture to…well…to the finger. The next few moments were tense, as Shun realized he might have screwed up and gone too far with the taunt, since he wasn't exactly at full strength. In fact, with the condition he was in, he realized that Maleficent could EASILY beat him, and Maleficent's sudden silence was never a good sign. But heck, he figured if he was going in for a world of hurt, he might as well give one more jab, even if it was just for the kicks and giggles.

"Cat got your tongue? Well, I don't blame you, especially since your first big loss was against who again? Oh yeah, a teenage boy who didn't even have any formal training, or real control over his Keyblade! I mean, sure Master Sora may be a great hero now, but back then, I heard he was REALLY green! How do you even look yourself in the mirror after losing to that?" Shun taunted, before laughing his guts out at the end, wanting nothing more than to milk this situation for all it was worth.

...dead silence was his only answer.

That's when Shun heard something morphing behind him and quickly turned around, just as the shadows finished turning into a projection of Maleficent, which lunged at him, and grabbed him by the neck and slamming him into the wall. Before he could get his head straight, he felt her hand squeezing down on his neck, making breathing problematic. "I can finish you whenever I please!" Maleficent sneered. "SO WHY NOT MAKE IT NOW!" she spat as she began to crush his wind pipe.

Shun could only let out a choked sound as his vision was getting blurry from the lack of air. However, Shun had also planned for this, knowing that Maleficent wouldn't appear in person, but rather via a projection like this. Therefore, the 'trap' would work in 3…2…1.

A bright flash happened, followed by a beam striking Maleficent, causing the projection's skin to burn and fizzle.

"GAH! What!?" she screamed, confused by the sudden attack from the hangar itself. "_Anti-magic?! Impossible!_" she thought as she frantically looked around, suddenly realizing her folly. Having never had a need for them, she had never been inside a Gummi Hangar before, so she never knew or cared about what went into making these ships, and that included the stockpiles of dragonium metal that was always kept in the hangars.

"_Gotcha!_" Shun thought with a smirk as Maleficent had let go of his throat when the dragonium reacted. Dragonium was a type of metal that was naturally found in mountainous caves, most of which were found to be ideal homes for dragons, or other draconic animals, as well as being found in small quantities within dragon scales (hence the name 'dragonium'). What made the metal so special was the fact that dragonium had anti-energy properties, particularly towards magical energies (aka Mana), and though he was still a little skeptical about it, he didn't question the fact that it worked, since it was always used to keep Gummi Hangars safe from any unstable ships should they go critical. Even better, recently it was discovered that the metal was extremely effective against spiritual and/or so-called 'magical' beings, meaning that this place was a veritable death trap for someone like Maleficent.

Taking advantage of her distraction, Shun picked up a sizeable bar of dragonium that was roughly as long as he was. "So…I guess this is your first time in a Gummi Hangar," he started, catching Maleficent's attention, before slamming the bar against his left hand, splitting it at the end, before using his left hand to crush and shape the tip to make an improvised edge. "Mind if I give you a tour?"

Maleficent stood there holding her now burnt hand, and without thinking, Maleficent slung her projection's fist towards Shun in a black mass of inky shadows, preparing to reduce Shun to nothing more than a smear on the wall. However, before she could hit her target, the arm was severed and splattered across the floor by one swing of Shun's 'weapon'.

-break-

Back on the canyon side, Maleficent hissed in pain as she was suddenly feeling her projection's pain as well. "_How can this be? This has never happened before, so why is this happening now?!_" she thought, though she knew where she could get her answer once this was over. "_Those two will have a lot to answer for when I'm done here,_" she thought viciously, knowing that Maria and Sephora probably knew something, and besides, she'd enjoy torturing those two for answers anyway. Laughing at the thought, she quickly focused her attention back on her projection…and soon wished she hadn't…

-break-

Before she could even focus all her rage back on her target, Shun was upon her with the spear and before Maleficent knew it, Shun had sliced the projection from across the shoulder leading down to her waist.

-break-

"GAH!" she screamed as her insides threatened to become external, before she quickly shifted her form into shadows again to avoid any permanent physical damage.

-break-

Seeing the perfect opening, Shun lunged forward to deliver the finishing blow, before Maleficent's projection devolved into a humanoid shadow, which he beheaded all the same. What came next was a sharp and angry yell from Maleficent, which reverberated around him, followed by a swarm of Heartless, Shadows to be precise, emerging from around him.

"Fine!" Maleficent spat, her voice seemingly coming from all around. "If that's how you'll have it, then I'll take my rage out on your demon pet!" she declared as her presence left the hangar. Hearing that, Shun realized that Sakido was still outside and he focused on making his way back out just as the Heartless began to ban together into some sort of wave, pouring out from all sides and began to attack.

Shun raised the spear, preparing to slice/stab through the wave of Heartless. However, before he could do anything, he felt the familiar warm sensation of receiving a message from The Master. The message reminded him of his currently broken Aero Slider, as well as his damaged arm, and that without either of them, he wouldn't be able to help Sakido escape from Maleficent's clutches. "Then how am I going to help her?! If you didn't notice, I'm a little busy right now!" Shun said. The reply he got was a suggestion. Why not ride the Heartless to the Storm Rider itself? When he got that, Shun couldn't help but smile. "I like the way you think," he grinned, before swinging his blade into the Heartless swarm and splitting it in half. Instead of wiping out all of the Heartless like he had initially planned, he decided to just split the wave in half before he started running towards the back of the hangar with the Heartless in tow, jumping to and fro avoiding the dangerous machinery and hap hazardous dragonium, only needing to turn around once to dispel the Heartless and give himself a fighting chance to get into position. Readying his Thompson Contender along the way as he had a feeling he'd need it, he quickly got into position and waited for the Master's signal, once more watching as the Heartless swarmed into one massive cloud once more.

Holding his ground, Shun stood at the ready. "Wait for it…" he muttered as the Heartless came closer and spread high into the air. "Now!" he shouted as he jumped up as the Heartless swarmed around the area he had just left. Slinging themselves upward to Shun's feet where he graciously planted his soles on the face of the first unlucky Heartless that met his shoes, before jumping again, again, and again and all by the Master's orders, knowing he need the help most, before Shun felt the Master's presences leave him and go to another.

Back outside, Sakido was not in a good position, as she struggled to stay conscious. The Heartless had been slowly crushing her, and now it had managed to break a few of her ribs, making it harder and harder to breath, while her wounds continued to bleed as the teeth stabbed into her like swords. She had attempted to escape several times, but to her dismay, every attempt was a failure, as even her attempt at a lightning spell was dispelled by the creature's saliva that had suddenly developed anti-magic abilities. Unable to get even a spark, she struggled more and more to try to escape using what precious energy she had left until she soon began to pass out. However, right before her vision faded, she suddenly felt a surge of energy as her strength was suddenly restored, though her wounds and the pain remained. She gasped at the sudden jolt cleared up her vision, but before she knew it the creature was thrashing about again trying its damnedest to put her lights out but as she tried to struggle out of the creatures mouth the results were the same, so why was she alive in the first place if only to be trapped again? Was she just being kept alive to die slowly?

That's when she heard him. "SAKIDOOOOOO!" Looking down, she saw what had to be the stupidest, if not admittedly, coolest things she ever saw. There was Shun…riding on a wave of Heartless like they were some kind of board, making his way up to her. Once the wave was close, he jumped from the top of the wave and over the Storm Rider's head. Drawing his gun, he suddenly shouted, "CATCH!" as he fired what looked like a spear right towards her.

Sakido saw the spear coming, and despite the excruciating pain she was in, still managed to hear him and focus enough to manage to grab the spear. She didn't need to strain to know why Shun had given her a weapon instead of shooting the Heartless, as there was only one thought on her mind. "Let! Me! GO!" she roared, before stabbing the Storm Rider in the eye!

The Storm Rider roared in pain, releasing its hostage, while at the same time, Maleficent grabed her left eye and cried out in agony, before feeling a sudden slash on her cheek, as Sakido pushed herself out of the Storm Rider's mouth, scraping the blade against its skin and leaving a huge scar over it, and at the same time, over Maleficent's left cheek.

Despite Sakido's body screaming at her thanks to the bite marks that were now present on her back and navel area, she managed to push through it and quickly forced her wings to fly, preventing her from falling out of the sky, though she was a little shaky and she was still losing altitude.

Seeing the state she was in, Shun quickly moved a little forward in mid-air and quickly positioned himself near her and grabbed on to her. "Sakido! Are you alright?!" he asked her worriedly…only for her to give him a look that seemed like a cross between a dirty look and a look that seemed to say 'Are you serious?', as she was VERY sure she didn't have to say it for him to figure it out. "Ah…right… Sorry, standard question," he chuckled sheepishly, causing her to roll her eyes in annoyance at him, since considering she had just been gnawed by the Heartless, nearly bitten in half, and was losing quite a bit of blood by the moment...

"_O__f course she __ISN__'T alright! __Any dummy could have seen that__!_" He mentally berated himself. Getting over his embarrassment quickly, Shun glared at the Heartless. He had to end this soon. The longer they took, the more people would die from the miasma. "Alright, no more games! Bullet Creation…Commence!" he declared as they fell in mid air focused again.

Core element… selected

Bullet material… selected

Bullet type…selected

Once the process was done, a new bullet appeared, only this time, it glowed a neon white color as Shun loaded it into his Thompson Contender. "Make this count!" he said as he slung the gun around Sakido's neck and at the heartless itself "**Hyper…**" the bullet charged "**Burst!**" he shouted as a sphere colored the same neon white color as the bullet charged out the front of the barrel of the Thompson, before an intense beam was fired.

Seeing the oncoming attack, the Storm Rider, in a surprising show of finesse, thanks in no small part to its master, evaded the attack, but it was not quite fast enough as the attack brushed against the upper right side of its head and an explosion happened where it was hit, shattering one of Maleficent's horns. The Heartless roared in pain as the upper right of its head, including one of its horns, was completely destroyed, pushing it to the brink of defeat.

At this point, both Shun and Sakido couldn't help but smile at each other with a certain sick satisfaction at the sight of the troublesome Heartless about to meet its end, thanks to all the grief 'she' had caused them. However, just as it was about to fall, a dark portal appeared and sucked the Heartless in as Maleficent sent them a death glare from where she was standing, and with a wave of her hand, dispelled any projections that were still in the area, and calling off any Heartless that were there as well.

"…she ran away…" Shun deadpanned in disbelief. "Tch. How typical of her." It was strange enough that a Heartless as unique as the Storm Rider had appeared, and not only was it stronger than the average Boss-Class Heartless, but to think someone, even Maleficent, had altered it to such a high degree and would even go through the trouble of preventing them from defeating it, was extremely strange. Granted, had they not known its 'ties' to Maleficent, it might have beaten them, but still…

"And after all that-urg!" Sakido was about to curse before she winced, as now that the adrenaline from the fight had started to wear off, she was starting to really feel the wounds she had gotten from the fight.

"Hey…" Shun said as he adjusted himself in mid-air into an upright position to catch himself on his Aero Slider. "You don't look so good."

"_Thank you, captain obvious,_" she thought whilst rolling her eyes, before looking down and realizing how close to the ground they were. "Uh…Shun?"

"We need to get you patched up right away-" Shun started to talk, just as he followed her gaze to the ever approaching ground. "AW CRAP!"

*THUD!*

Dust shot up as the two of them hit the ground. "Ooooooooww, damn it!" he said breathlessly as he realized the mistake he made. He had used the Heartless to get into the sky and it was SAKIDO who had the wings, and he didn't exactly have a parachute on him either.

"Heh...hehehe…hahahahahahaha!" he laughed as he fell back on the ground.

"What's so funny?" Sakido asked, reeling from the impact of hitting the ground from that height.

"Picture this. We survived the poisonous miasma, the crazy witch, and the murderous Heartless, only to die from falling into the dirt. Hahaha! If that's not ironic, I don't know that is!" he explained as he continued to laugh.

Sakido just glared at him. "_There is NOTHING funny about dying, dammit!_" she mentally shouted. They just barely survived that and he was laughing like it was no big deal. "_Is he really that brave, or is he just so stupid that he can treat death like a game?!_" she thought, before sighing in annoyance and grabbing him by his cloak, bringing him to his feet and saying, "March!" whilst pointing towards the hangar.

Shun, in turn, was taken aback by her attitude. "Er…Okay," he blinked, before walking in the correct direction. "_Sheesh! What's HER problem? I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little,_" he thought as he started walking, until…

*crack* "Oof!" he groaned, falling forward as his injuries finally caught up to him. "Geez. Murphy's law strikes again," he muttered as the pain he had been ignoring up till now flared up. Looking towards Sakido, he saw her kneeling as well with her hand over the wound on her stomach and sides. Thank goodness for the fact that they were both Rebirths, otherwise that fall, along this next track to their hangar might have been impossible to make. Turning towards her, he smiled slightly and said, "Here," as he offered his shoulder to her. She stared at him for a moment in confusion, until she realized what he was doing, before using the shoulder as a temporary crutch. With that, the two of them walked towards the hangar, wanting nothing more than to get to Shun's ship.

-Break-

Maleficent was angry. No, angry was an understatement. She was infuriated, not just at the fact that she was defeated by a couple of Rebirths, but also because those two women had upped and disappeared. She had some questions she needed answered and she wanted them answered NOW! Another thing was that they clearly knew something she didn't. After all, why else smile at her pain? Why else laugh at her threats? They knew something was wrong from the beginning and she'd spill their guts just to hear it. Literally.

"[So Maleficent, I see you've had your fun]" came an ethereal voice that she didn't hear through her ears, but rather through her very soul. The voice came from behind Maleficent, scaring her and causing her to attack the cloaked man out of reflex.

"You!" she spat at her benefactor. "Where are they? What have you done to MY assistants?" Maleficent demanded.

"[Nothing at all, but they did say you were mistreating them. That's why I felt it necessary to stitch up their wounds and let them heal]" he said with a smarmy air of confidence that Maleficent hated about him. "[After all, 'we' are not a dime a dozen. We are unique. We gave you this power, and we can just as easily take it away. I recommend you remember that]" he said arms crossed.

"And I think, you should learn your place!" Maleficent countered, lashing out with her staff, only to find that her magic wasn't working. "What!?"

"[That's not how this works, Maleficent]" he said waving his hand, having disabled her magic with a mere gesture. "[You've already learned so much in the short time since you gained access to this world's Hollow Drive]" he lowered his finger as her staff regained its glow. "[So I am certain you know what the Hollow Drives are capable of]"

Maleficent look at him unamused. "Hmph! If you're so capable of using them…" she started, looking to how his action felt the same as the Hollow Drive's reality altering powers, "Then why demand my services?"

The figure just smiled beneath his hood. "[...tell me Maleficent… Have you ever heard the phrase 'to kill a god'?]" At this, she looked at him curiously. Surely he couldn't be serious. She knew there wasn't away to kill a God, at least not one possible by mortal means. Even she could not accomplish that, but here he was promising just that. "[It's not as impossible as one might think]"

Maleficent's eyes widened in surprise when she heard that as she silently stood there, watching as the man proceeded to the Hollow Drive and placed his hand over it.

"[You see, in reality there are no true Gods, only false idols we all protect through worship]" he said as the Drive's cube core spun rapidly. "[People believe these kings of men to be invulnerable, but in reality they're just as vulnerable as we are. I want to prove that to somebody and I want to show him that he is not above a God, just as much as I am not below a human]"

"And you need me somewhere in this crazy plan? For what?!" she demanded as he turned and smiled under his hood (not that she saw it).

"[To wipe him away from existence]" was his answer. "[And the Hollow Drives are the key to achieving this goal. The key to the entire multi-verse even]"

Maleficent was left speechless for the first time in a long time. Quickly regaining her composure, she asked, "And why should I help you? What's in it for me?"

"[The glory of killing a God]"

Maleficent was not amused by that answer. "You jest. No one is capable of killing a God, not even I," she spat, turning away. Even if there was a way to kill a God, she wouldn't be crazy enough to risk her life for it, knowing they could easily erase her.

"[What if I told you that the God I intend to kill is the very source of all Rebirths, the God known as the Master?]" This made her stop short, as it caught her interest, as the hooded man continued. "[What if I told you that this GOD was only capable of acting through them and that the only way it can attack is to have them fight back for it? What if i told you it was the Hollow Drives that were tied to it? Would you trust me now?]" he smirked, knowing he had her in his hooks.

"_Damn him,_" she thought, before turning back to the man. "And what would I have to do to get rid of this… God?"

"[All you need to do, is gather a set of Hollow Drives. That is all]" he chided.

"How many?" she demanded, only for him to raise his hand, showing the number she needed. 5 Hollow Drives. At this, she went wide eyed at the number. "What do I need to do?"

"[Create a distraction. Quit meddling with the Hollow Drive as you have and complete the Unwritten. That is all you need to do for now]" he stated. "[Then, once we've properly extracted the Hollow Drive of this world, we can move on to discovering the location of the other Hollow Drives]" he said as he proceeded to walk away to a dark corner of the room.

"And if i do this…" he stopped as Maleficent started talking. "This will kill the Rebirths?" he turned to look at her for a moment and simply nodded his head, before walking into the wall and fading from reality. "Hmph, fool!" she spat, turning to the Hollow Drive. "I'll complete your Unwritten, but it will be I who has control over them, not you!" she said, before mentally adding, "_A__nd as for this so called __M__aster, it only proved one thing__…_" she thought as she summoned a crystal orb and waved her hand. The crystal rippled, before showing the scene of the Gummi Hangar where her projection had been destroyed. What this proved to her, was that Shun wasn't as perceptive as she once thought. In fact, none of them were, and that they were all nothing more than a bunch of meat puppet for this "Master" her benefactor spoke of, and if she could kill it then she could kill all of them. Now all she needed was a way to do it and she quickly got to work on conjuring up her projection's remains, binding them to all shadows on Radiant Garden. That way she'd know exactly where they were heading.

"_Besides…_" she thought with a smile. "I'm going to make that demon wench pay for what she did to me!" she said gritting her teeth as she gripped her face where the scar and her blind eye lay…

(Scene freezes as the chapter ends)

(Ending theme 1, "Itsumo" OST Transformers: Galaxy Force)

_*music*_

As the music starts, we see a shot of the sky, as snow falls down to the ground

_Kimi no kokoro ni aru shinjitsu… Kimi no egao de yume wa kagayaku…_

The scene changes to show a shot of Sakido from behind, as she is standing inside a cave as she watches the heavy rain outside.

_Kimi no karada ni nemuru yuuki… Me no mae no kabe mo nante koto nai_

The scene changes again to show Sakido walking through a barren wasteland as a strong wind and heavy rain pelt against her, while she walks against it, holding her side as though injured…

_Bokura deatta imi mo wakaru yo. Sukoshi mimi o sumaseba…_

Sakido begins to sway slightly, before the scene then shows a close up of her, as something starts glowing from within her gown and on her wrists, revealing them to be her Sun Pendant and Darius' feathers respectively, before the glow envelops the screen.

_Ashita ga yondeiru Ima sugu iku yo. Ryoute o tsubasa ni kaete…_

The scene changes to show Sakido's shocked expression, as she has suddenly been turned back into her childhood self, before she sees visions of her family, starting with baby Buwaro, who smiles at her while holding up his little paws, followed by an image of young Iratu who is grinning playfully at her, before finally Darius appears, whilst holding out his hand towards her with a gentle smile on his face

_Dare ni mo makenai sa ikinuku koto ga _

Young Sakido's face blooms with joy as she runs towards them, but just as she is about to reach them, the screen is enveloped in a bright light

_Bokura o kaeteiku_

The scene changes to show Sakido lying on the ground on a field of grass as her eyes open, before she looks towards the image of Darius which fades away, revealing Shun who is kneeling next to her, holding his hand out to her while he smiles gently

_Koete tsuyoku nareru…_

Sakido blinks in surprise, before her features soften considerably and a warm smile appears on her face as she takes Shun's hand and slowly stands up

_*music*_

Once Sakido is back on her feet, Shun walks towards the screen, beckoning her to follow. Sakido smiles gently, before she follows him. The scene then shifts to show Sakido from behind, walking towards Shun who is standing alongside 3 shadowed figures, with a Gummi Ship in the background.

(theme end)

-Author's Note-

Here is the redone version of chapter 3. I'm doing this, cause frankly, the original version kinda sucks. As such, I'm going to be redoing the last two chapter already uploaded. I hope you all enjoy this new, and improved chapter.

Now then, since I've been using a lot of OC characters, I think it would be good for me to add their info after the end of each episode, so here is the first one.

Shun Hayami

Age: 25 (died and reborn at age 23)

Race: Human (Cyborg)

Rebirth type: ?

Homeworld: Unknown (he neither has any reason nor want to return, due to personal reasons)

Physical appearance: Shun is considered quite tall (Nearly reaching Sakido's shoulder for estimate), and is built rather thinly with some muscle (focused more on speed rather than strength). He has deep bronze skin, deep amber eyes (shaped sharper than regular human eyes, making them look more predatory), white hair that is kept in a wild/messy style, despite it being short. His left arm is cybernetic and is black in color with a clawed hand rather than a regular looking hand, making his arm look rather demonic.

Rebirth Mark location: upper left side of his head.

General attire: A dark blue shirt with black long pants and an old looking and torn jacket on top. He also wears a brown traveling cloak with a hood (used for both stealth and to conceal his weapons). His forehead is covered in bandages that he's styled to look like a headband, which he uses to cover his Rebirth mark.

Personality: On the surface, Shun has a calm, goofy, easily amused, and somewhat laid back personality, is friendly and nice, and generally the type that makes people want to trust him. Underneath that façade, he is still nice to his friends and allies and cares for their well-being, but he is actually quite serious and more professional, preferring to finish his opponents in the most efficient way possible (shoot them in the head, snipe them from a far, hit them with a missile, etc). He can also be quite merciless at times, especially against those who hurt his friends. His goofy and easily amused personality is actually a cover-up to hide his painful past and the guilt and shame he feels from his actions in life, never truly opening up to others. Despite viewing his life as a Rebirth as a second chance, Shun has never actually forgiven himself for the horrible acts he did in life, using them as a reminder of the path that he, and anyone else, must never walk.

Weapon: Various firearms (both lethal and non-lethal) that he keeps in a special sub-space, and his left arm: Key of War, which is an experimental weapon for both offence and defense, intended to emulate the legendary "Gate of Babylon" technique…with mixed results. He also stores a few melee type weapons for use in case he is ever forced into close range combat.

Special abilities: Shun is able to use an unknown type of magic that allows him to quickly switch out his weapons (a variation of Re-equip) with only a thought. His left arm has the ability to access his special sub-space and attach itself with various heavy armaments and artillery weapons, making him a walking artillery vault. Alternatively, he is also able to summon the weapons stored in his sub-space without actually touching them, making them float in the air. In this state, he is able to mentally trigger them to fire, though the more weapons he summons, the greater the strain he has to endure. As a Rebirth, Shun also has been granted superhuman speed and reflexes that allow him to use his guns to deadly proportions. However, as a trade off, his physical strength and defense is somewhat below average, which puts him at a disadvantage if he is forced to fight in a close range battle. Aside from this, he also has a special ability he gained when becoming a Rebirth, which he dubs: 'Bullet Creation', that allows him to create any type of bullet he desires, as well as add an element, or special ability to it. However, certain bullets come with certain costs, such as the Hyper Bullet, which costs so much energy that he can only safely craft 1 per day.

Background: ? (yet to be revealed)


End file.
